Bytes to meters of tape
by pcaron on 10/29/04 at 04:50:52

While working with a Japanese manufacturer's machine control, I inquired as to the size of its computer's internal memory.  The reply was in units of meters of tape - punch tape.  Amazing.

FWIW, here's the conversions the manufacturer gave me.  I suspect approximations, since a piece of punch tape I found measured out to an even 12 bytes per inch, but there you are.

5120 meters = 2 Meg
2560 Meters = 1 Meg
1280 Meters = 512K
640 Meters = 256K
320 Meters = 128K
160 Meters = 64K
80 Meters = 32K
40 Meters = 16K
20 Meters = 8K
10 Meters = 4K
1 Meter = 400 Bytes
10 mm = 4 bytes

BTW, great site.

- Phil Caron

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