Motorola's Punched-Card Reader

[COURYHOUSE at aol.com]

Ed at SMECC FOUND:
 
In the Motorola annual report from 1967
 
 
 
CONTROL
SYSTEMS
DIVISION



The division completed the best year
in its six-year history. Orders  increased
40% over the previous year.
Additionally, two significant  objectives
were reached.
The first was a move to achieve
international  stature in the process
controls field. Early in the year, a
sales and  service organization was
established in Puerto Rico to serve
the  mushrooming petro-chemical industry
in that area. Also, early in 1968,
the  division established a fully owned
subsidiary in England. The  subsidiary,
known as Motorola Control Systems,
Ltd., will service the  process control
and information processing markets
in the United Kingdom  and the European
Common Market.
Second, through product innovation
and  sales penetration, the division
took a giant step in achieving its
primary  goal — placing Motorola
firmly in the field of information
processing. At  the Fall joint computer
conference in California, the
division unveiled  its MDR-1000
Document Reader, the first of a family
of low-cost input  terminals for
information processing systems. The
MDR-1000 provides a  simple means
for entering data into an electronic
processing system  directly from
marked or punched cards and
documents.
This offers  systems designers a new,
low-cost method of getting raw data
directly from  the source, without
need for skilled data processing
equipment  operators.
The initial application of this
"industry-first" is in  processing daily
operating information for one of the
Bell Telephone  systems. The immediate
success of the MDR-1000 resulted
in an expansion of  this customer's
program. Potential applications
for the MDR-1000 in  business,
education, industry and government
are virtually endless.
The  division's continuing success in
marketing its three major product
lines —  supervisory control systems,
data systems and process controls
systems —  increases its technical
skills and disciplines in the related
field of  information processing. The
primary skill involved is  computer
technology.
In the area of process control  instrumentation,
for instance, the division
received several petroleum  refinery
contracts to supply complete networks
of field instruments, plus  all
related computer interface equipment.
Three of these major  contracts
called for tying in with computers
from three different  computer
manufacturers.
Supervisory control system sales also
gained  impetus during the year. A
large system was designed and installed
for the  Minnesota Power &
Light Co., and other systems are
under construction  for the Getty Oil
Co. and Marathon Pipeline Co.
The sale of additional  equipment for
systems installed in previous years
continued to increase  during the
year. This segment of the total sales
picture is significant as  engineering
development costs were generally
charged against the original  sale.
 
 
 
ok lets  find  one of these   readers!  sheet and  card.... neat!
 
Thanks Ed Sharpe archivist  for SMECC  _www.smecc.org_ 
(http://www.smecc.org) 
 
 
 
In a message dated 3/24/2016 1:02:25 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time,  
silent700 at gmail.com writes:

I don't  know their history as regards computing before the 1980s but
Motorola seems  to have had a brief flirtation with data processing in
the form of their  MDR-1000 mark-sense and punched-card reader, a
brochure for which I scanned  tonight:

http://chiclassiccomp.org/docs/index.php?dir=%2Fcomputing/Motorola

The  original had been damaged by mildew and staining, which I tried to
clean up  a bit without sacrificing the graphics on the covers, but the
inside fared  much better.  If you're like me, you'll enjoy some juicy
shots of  telco datacomm equipment, too.

I know HP made a similar desktop device  but I don't believe this is a
rebadge of any other company's product.   Or is it?

As always, feel free to add to your collections,  etc.

-j