The IBM 726 was IBM's first magnetic tape unit. It was a dual magnetic tape reader/recorder developed for use with the

IBM 701 The IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing Machine, known as the Defense Calculator while in development, was IBM’s first commercial scientific computer and its first series production mainframe computer, which was announced to the public on May ...

and announced on May 21, 1952. This model of tape unit was shipped with the IBM 701 from December 20, 1952 until February 28, 1955. Unlike later IBM 7 track drives, the 726 could read backwards as well as forwards. The tape had seven parallel tracks, six for data (called a ''copy group'', not a character) and one to maintain parity. Tapes were recorded in odd parity, to ensure at least one bit transition per copy group as well as for error checking. The 726 concurrently handled two reels of tape, and there were two 726 units in an

system. IBM 726 Magnetic tape reader/recorder
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References

726 __NOTOC__ Year 726 ( DCCXXVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 726 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar e ...

Tape 726 {{compu-storage-stub