CST 10341 MAG Tape Controller NFPA Type II 115V 4-Unit 7/9 Track Rackmount 1983

CST 10341 MAG Tape Controller NFPA Type II 115V 4-Unit 7/9 Track Rackmount 1983

The CST 10341 is a rackmount magnetic tape controller manufactured by Computer Storage Technology, Inc. (CST) of Anaheim, California, dated December 1983. It is designed to manage up to four magnetic tape drive units simultaneously and is classified as an NFPA Type II controller. The unit runs on 115V 60Hz AC power and supports both 7-track and 9-track tape modes, selectable per unit.

Specifications & What's Included

• Manufacturer: CST (Computer Storage Technology, Inc.), Anaheim, CA
• Part Number: 10341
• Classification: NFPA Type II
• Input Voltage: 115V AC
• Frequency: 60 Hz
• Fuse: 2A (F1-2A S/B)
• Units Supported: 4 (Units 0, 1, 2, 3)
• Track Mode: 7-Track / 9-Track, selectable per unit
• Density Select: LOW / HI per unit (units 0–3)
• Front Panel Indicators: UNIT SELECTED amber LEDs (0–3), POWER green LED, ODD and EVEN PARITY green LEDs, 7 TRK and 9 TRK MODE green LEDs
• Front Panel Controls: Four UNIT SELECT rotary switches, LOW/HI DENSITY SELECT toggle switches, power rocker switch
• Rear Interface Connectors: Edge connectors P2, P3 (Unit 0, 1), P4, P5 (Unit 2, 3), P8, I/O
• AC Input: Circular locking multi-pin connector (rear panel)
• Form Factor: Rackmount (approximately 3U)
• Manufacture Date: December 1983
• Country of Manufacture: USA
• Interior: Large main logic PCB densely populated with ICs; separate power supply and analog board with transformer and wiring harness

Applications

Magnetic tape controllers like the CST 10341 were central components of mainframe and minicomputer data storage systems in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They served as the interface layer between a host computer and multiple magnetic tape drives, handling the low-level control signals — tape motion, read/write timing, density switching, parity checking — so the host only needed to issue higher-level commands. The NFPA Type II designation indicates compliance with the National Fire Protection Association's standards for data processing equipment, a classification that was required or preferred in many government, military, and institutional computing environments of that era. The 7-track/9-track dual-mode capability made the 10341 compatible with a broad range of tape media and drive hardware from that generation, including drives from manufacturers such as Kennedy, PERTEC, and Cipher. Today, units like this are sought primarily by vintage computing preservationists, museums, and organizations maintaining legacy data archives who need to read or migrate data from 1970s–1980s 9-track tape archives.