30 Nov
2007
30 Nov
'07
9:19 a.m.
On 30 Nov 2007 at 5:46, M H Stein wrote:
The keypunch equivalents could, but were much too slow
for serious output
operations. Not only were they slower to begin with, but they punched 80
columns lengthwise while pretty well all the electro-mechanical EAMs worked
on the principle of a 12-phase synchronized cycle across the card, corresponding
to the 12 zones of the cards.
...and if you were one of the poor unfortunates to get saddled with
the 024 keypunch in a room of 026s, you needed the 557--the 024
didn't print on the card--you flew "blind" or you just read the punch
holes visually.
Fortunately, there was a standard IBM card form that numbered the
interpreter print columns on the two top rows as 1-60 and 61-80, so
you could figure out what printed character corresponded to what
punched column. Unless of course, some practical joker decided to
swap a couple of wires on the 557 plugboard...
Later, some keypunches could be used as light-duty card punches for
systems. I recall a CDC 1700 mini being hooked to a Univac keypunch.
Tab offered a keypunch that had an RS-232C interface on it and
probably were not the only ones. Both of those, IIRC, had "buffered"
keyboard interfaces--you typed in the card, then the punch punched
the whole thing. I preferred the 029 "press a key, get a kerchunk".
Later, I had the same issue with the daisywheel typewriters that
seemed to print asynchronously with one's typing.
Cheers,
Chuck