Difference between revisions of "Punched card"
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In the pre-electronic era, wire brushes were used to sense the presence or absence of a hole; later on, optical sensors were common. | In the pre-electronic era, wire brushes were used to sense the presence or absence of a hole; later on, optical sensors were common. | ||
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| + | ==Further reading== | ||
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| + | * Lars Heide, ''Punched-Card Systems and the Early Information Explosion, 1880-1945'', Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 2009 | ||
==External links== | ==External links== | ||
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* [https://homepage.divms.uiowa.edu/~jones/cards/ Punched cards] | * [https://homepage.divms.uiowa.edu/~jones/cards/ Punched cards] | ||
** [https://homepage.divms.uiowa.edu/~jones/cards/history.html A brief illustrated technical history] | ** [https://homepage.divms.uiowa.edu/~jones/cards/history.html A brief illustrated technical history] | ||
| − | + | * [https://ibm-1401.info/RoundHolesIBM-Card.html IBM cards used round holes until the early 1930s] | |
| − | + | * [https://ibm-1401.info/Who80ColumnRectHolePunchedCard.pdf Who Invented the 80 column, Rectangular Hole Punched Card?] | |
[[Category: Device Basics]] | [[Category: Device Basics]] | ||
Latest revision as of 18:40, 2 July 2025
Punched cards were a very popular medium for input/output and data storage in the early period of computer usage. Data was stored in them by the presence, or absence, of holes punched in pre-determined locations.
They were actually a hangover from a pre-electronic stage of data processing; Herman Hollerith pioneered the use of cards for data storage for the 1890 U.S. census, and IBM became a world-wide colossus before World War II on its dominance of card processing.
Physically, they were stiff, thin cardboard, typically slightly less than .01 inches thick. A number of different formats were used over time, but the most popular by far was IBM's format, introduced in 1928: they were 7-3⁄8 by 3-1⁄4 inches in size, with rectangular holes in 80 columns of 12 rows.
A card could hold up to 80 alphanumeric characters, one per column: numbers were indicated by a single punch in rows 1-10; letters were indicated by a punch in row 10/11/12, plus a punch in rows 1-9. Cards could also hold binary data, with more than two holes per column; by convention, a 7 and 9 punch in the first column indicated that the rest of the card held binary data.
In the pre-electronic era, wire brushes were used to sense the presence or absence of a hole; later on, optical sensors were common.
Further reading
- Lars Heide, Punched-Card Systems and the Early Information Explosion, 1880-1945, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 2009
