NEAC Magnetic Tape Drive | 102691313 | Computer History Museum

Description

This large cabinet is one of several magnetic tape drive units from the NEAC 2203. Multiple tape drives were part of most installations to allow for copying, transferring, merging, and sorting of data. This unit has a full reel of tape loaded.

As well as these magnetic tape units, the system included a CPU, a console, a paper tape reader and punch, and a printer. Even though it was sold exclusively in Japan, it could process Western alphabetic characters as well as Japanese kana characters. Only about thirty NEACs were sold. The last one was decommissioned in 1979.

The Computer History Museum’s NEAC 2203 managed Japan's first on-line, real-time reservation system for Kinki Nippon Railways beginning in 1960.