How Fast Can We Load From Tape?

If we suddenly had a perfectly-reliable cassette tape, how fast could we possibly load data from it? This is a question I started pondering a while ago. To answer it, I had to do look into how data is stored on tape and how exactly we load it. Along the way, we'll find several limits and assumptions we have to work around on our quest for the fastest-possible loading.

Support Noel's Retro Lab on Patreon:   / noelsretrolab  
You can also support Noel's Retro Lab on YouTube by joining this channel:
   / @noelsretrolab  

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:54 Cassette audio
02:05 Audio data encoding
03:03 Measurements from tape
05:44 TZX
08:28 Loading code
12:41 Arduino issues
19:01 Cassette port issues
21:41 Alternate port
24:25 Conclusion

Links:
Noel's Retro Lab web site https://noelsretrolab.com
TZX Format http://k1.spdns.de/Develop/Projects/z...
TZXDuino Reloaded https://github.com/arananet/TzxDuino-...
Maxduino Firmware https://github.com/rcmolina/MaxDuino_...
Hyperloader and CDT Scripts https://github.com/llopis/HyperLoader

Music tracks:
Funky Stars by McKlain https://mcklain.bandcamp.com/track/fu...
Battro OST by McKlain https://mcklain.bandcamp.com/track/ba...
More awesome music by McKlain: https://www.mcklain.com

🛠 Tools I use ➤ https://noelsretrolab.com/tools.html

Connect with Noel's Retro Lab:
Discord ➤   / discord  
Facebook ➤   / noelsretrolab  
Twitter ➤   / noelsretrolab  
Instagram ➤   / noelsretrolab  
Mailing list ➤ https://noelsretrolab.com