Magnetic tape I-O interface

A reduction in interaction rate was also attained for magnetic tapes, but in a different manner. A single user request on the magnetic tape system was permitted for a series of similar read or writes. The read or writes would proceed sequentially into or out of a buffer in an ECS file, and would return a single response to the user process at the end of the sequence. The sequence would be terminated early if an error occurred, such as parity or end of file. The response would indicate the reason for termination and the number of reads or writes successfully completed.