A 1.6 m long section of paper tape of the type used for both input and output from many computers before the common use of “magnetic” tape and “magnetic” discs of various types became available. Information for input was generated by a stand-alone, paper-punch unit to generate the holes in the tape, which was then read by an optical reader on the computer. Computer output used a paper punch directly controlled by the computer. The early models of devices used six rows of punched holes allowing 2 to the sixth power (64) possible combinations of holes and hence 64 characters while the later versions were eight rows thereby increasing the available coded characters to increase to 256. This eight-row tape measures 2.5 cm in width (nominal 1”) and would have been stored in rolls. A second storage method was fanfold. The smaller holes between the third and fourth tracks would fit on the geared drive on the reader/writers to maintain correct positioning. (The characters shown on this tape do not represent actual codes but were generated simply to produce a showy display.)
