3 Mar
2009
3 Mar
'09
5:03 p.m.
On Mon, 2 Mar 2009 11:41:14 -0800 Rich Alderson <RichA at vulcan.com> said:
> From: CSquared
> Sent: Friday, February 27, 2009 2:53 PM
> I also seem to recall that Univac or some other
computer manufacturer
> actually used a 90 (?) column card for even better packing density.
> I'll leave that improved calculation to someone who actually remembers
> how many columns those cards were blessed with.
Univac 90-column cards are Hollerith cards just like
the "IBM" cards.
They consist of upper and lower groups of 45 columns of 6 round punches
(instead of the rectangular punches favoured by IBM).
Interesting. I don't know how I remembered the 90 columns as I never
worked with a Univac computer - only IBM's and various minis which mostly
didn't even have punched card readers at all. I'm not real sure I've
ever even seen one of the Univac punched cards. Your description
of the hole grouping sounds like maybe they encoded characters as
6-bit codes vs. the "12-1 is an A", "12-2 is a B" scheme used by IBM.
I'm not real sure that's even correct either - it's been a right good while.
Later,
Charlie Carothers
--
My email address is csquared3 at tx dot rr dot com