MAINFRAME HISTORY
Introduced alongside the System/360 in 1964, the IBM 2400 Series Tape Drives replaced the famous 729s and set a new industry standard: the 9-track, ½-inch tape.
For decades, those iconic spinning reels became the symbol of computing in movies, TV, and real data centers. Each reel held up to 250 MB (huge at the time!) and supported densities up to 6,250 bpi. More importantly, IBM’s 2400 series made 9-track tapes the universal format for data interchange — used well into the 1990s. #Mainframe
