TOPS-10: Getting data in and out

On a real PDP-10 running TOPS-10, you'd likely to have several peripherals to allow data to enter and leave the system: line printers, card punches and readers, paper tape and magnetic tape. One other alternative we've not seen before is DECtape which were magnetic tapes with a smaller form factor and a block structured, allowing random access to files. This meant they could be used as a slow…