Punched card input/output

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An IBM 650 computer, introduced in 1953 came with the IBM 533 Card Reader/Punch, right. At many 650 installations, punched cards were the only input and output medium.
IBM 711 card reader on an IBM 704 computer at NASA in 1957
The popular IBM 1401, introduced in 1959 featured a fast card reader/punch, the IBM 1402, left and a fast line printer, the IBM 1403, right
IBM 711 card readers, far left and foreground, attached to dual IBM 7090s at NASA Mission Control in 1962.
An IBM 2540 Card Reader Punch at the University of Michigan computer center in 1968
Punched card reader on an IBM System/360 Model 20
IBM System/3, announced in 1969 introduced a new, smaller punched card and a combined reader/punch/sorter, right
IBM 7070 with IBM 7501 Console Card Reader, right, based in the IBM 026 keypunch

A punched card reader or just card reader is a computer input device used to read data from punched cards. A card punch is a output device that punches holes in cards under computer control. Sometimes card readers were combined with card punches and, later, other devices to form multifunction machines.

The earliest computers, such as ENIAC were programmed and fed data using switches, patch cords and punched paper tape or film. When IBM entered and began to dominate the computer industry starting in the early 1950s, it used the punched card for programming, data input and often for data output. IBM had been selling punched card based unit record equipment for over half a century by then and its technology was mature and reliable. Business were familiar with storing data on punched cards and keypunch machines and their operators were widely employed. Punched cards were a good fit with the new art of computer programming, as having individual machine instructions or programming language statements entered on separate punched cards allowed programs to be edited relatively easily. See computer programming in the punched card era.

IBM adapted electromechanical card reading and punching mechanisms for use on early computing experiments, such as the IBM Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator and the IBM Card Programmed Calculator and used them on its electronic computers starting with the IBM 701.[1] Card readers and and punches were ubiquitous on computers supplied by IBM, and most of its competitors, through the mid-1970s.

Contents

[edit] Card readers

[edit] CDC

[edit] Documation

Documation Inc., of Melbourne, Florida, made card readers for minicomputers in the 1970s:

  • M-200 card reader, 300 cards/minute[2] also sold by DEC as the CR-11 card reader for the PDP-11[3]
  • M-1000-L card reader 1000 cards/minute[4]

[edit] IBM

[edit] Card punches

[edit] CDC

[edit] IBM

[edit] References

  1. ^ IBM 711 Punched Card Reader, was based on the IBM 402
  2. ^ http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/documation/M200_TechMan_Jan72.pdf M-200 Card Reader Manual, 1972
  3. ^ http://www.flickr.com/photos/paleoferrosaurus/2665692757/ Documation photo
  4. ^ http://sturgeon.css.psu.edu/~mloewen/Oldtech/Documation/

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Punch card readers
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