Fieldata

Fieldata was a pioneering computer project run by the US Army Signal Corps in the late 1950s that intended to create a single standard for collecting and distributing battlefield information. In this respect it could be thought of as a generalization of the US Air Force's SAGE system that was being created at about the same time.

Unlike SAGE, Fieldata was intended to be much larger in scope, allowing information to be gathered from any number of sources and forms. Much of the Fieldata system was the specifications for the format the data would take, leading to a character set that would be a huge influence on ASCII a few years later. Fieldata also specified the message formats and even the electrical standards for connecting Fieldata-standard machines together.

Another part of the Fieldata project was the design and construction of computers at several different scales, from data-input terminals at one end, to theatre-wide data processing centers at the other. Several Fieldata-standard computers were built during the lifetime of the project, including the transportable MOBIDIC from Sylvania, and the BASICPAC and LOGICPAC from Philco. Another system, ARTOC, was intended to provide graphical output (in the form of photographic slides), but was never completed.

Because Fieldata did not specify codes for interconnection and data transmission control, different systems used different control functions. Intercommunication between them was difficult (Mackenzie, 64).

Fieldata is the original character set used internally in UNIVAC computers of the 1100 series, represented by the sixth of the 36-bit word of that computer. The direct successor to the UNIVAC 1100 is the Unisys 2200 series computers, which use Fieldata to this day (although ASCII is now also common with each character encoded in 1/4 of a word, or 9 bits). Because some of the fieldata characters are not represented in ASCII, the Unisys 2200 uses '^', '"' and '_' characters for codes 04, 076 and 077 (octal) respectively.

The Fieldata project ran from 1956 until it was stopped during a reorganization in 1962.

Fieldata characters

Supervisory Bit (1)	Indicator Bits (2)	Detail Bits (4)	Binary Bits (7)	Decimal	Octal	Glyph	Name
0	00	0000	0000000	0	0	@	MasterSpace
0	00	0001	0000001	1	1	[
0	00	0010	0000010	2	2	]
0	00	0011	0000011	3	3	#
0	00	0100	0000100	4	4	Δ	Delta
0	00	0101	0000101	5	5		Blank
0	00	0110	0000110	6	6	A
0	00	0111	0000111	7	7	B
0	00	1000	0001000	8	10	C
0	00	1001	0001001	9	11	D
0	00	1010	0001010	10	12	E
0	00	1011	0001011	11	13	F
0	00	1100	0001100	12	14	G
0	00	1101	0001101	13	15	H
0	00	1110	0001110	14	16	I
0	00	1111	0001111	15	17	J
0	01	0000	0010000	16	20	K
0	01	0001	0010001	17	21	L
0	01	0010	0010010	18	22	M
0	01	0011	0010011	19	23	N
0	01	0100	0010100	20	24	O
0	01	0101	0010101	21	25	P
0	01	0110	0010110	22	26	Q
0	01	0111	0010111	23	27	R
0	01	1000	0011000	24	30	S
0	01	1001	0011001	25	31	T
0	01	1010	0011010	26	32	U
0	01	1011	0011011	27	33	V
0	01	1100	0011100	28	34	W
0	01	1101	0011101	29	35	X
0	01	1110	0011110	30	36	Y
0	01	1111	0011111	31	37	Z
0	10	0000	0100000	32	40	)
0	10	0001	0100001	33	41	-
0	10	0010	0100010	34	42	+
0	10	0011	0100011	35	43	<
0	10	0100	0100100	36	44	=
0	10	0101	0100101	37	45	>
0	10	0110	0100110	38	46	&
0	10	0111	0100111	39	47	$
0	10	1000	0101000	40	50	*
0	10	1001	0101001	41	51	(
0	10	1010	0101010	42	52	%
0	10	1011	0101011	43	53	:
0	10	1100	0101100	44	54	?
0	10	1101	0101101	45	55	!
0	10	1110	0101110	46	56	,
0	10	1111	0101111	47	57	\
0	11	0000	0110000	48	60	0
0	11	0001	0110001	49	61	1
0	11	0010	0110010	50	62	2
0	11	0011	0110011	51	63	3
0	11	0100	0110100	52	64	4
0	11	0101	0110101	53	65	5
0	11	0110	0110110	54	66	6
0	11	0111	0110111	55	67	7
0	11	1000	0111000	56	70	8
0	11	1001	0111001	57	71	9
0	11	1010	0111010	58	72	'
0	11	1011	0111011	59	73	;
0	11	1100	0111100	60	74	/
0	11	1101	0111101	61	75	.
0	11	1110	0111110	62	76	¤	Lozenge
0	11	1111	0111111	63	77	≠	Not Equal
1	00	0000	1000000	64	100		Blank/Idle
1	00	0001	1000001	65	101		Control Upper Case
1	00	0010	1000010	66	102		Control Lower Case
1	00	0011	1000011	67	103		Control Tab
1	00	0100	1000100	68	104		Control Carriage Return
1	00	0101	1000101	69	105		Control Space
1	00	0110	1000110	70	106	a
1	00	0111	1000111	71	107	b
1	00	1000	1001000	72	110	c
1	00	1001	1001001	73	111	d
1	00	1010	1001010	74	112	e
1	00	1011	1001011	75	113	f
1	00	1100	1001100	76	114	g
1	00	1101	1001101	77	115	h
1	00	1110	1001110	78	116	i
1	00	1111	1001111	79	117	j
1	01	0000	1010000	80	120	k
1	01	0001	1010001	81	121	l
1	01	0010	1010010	82	122	m
1	01	0011	1010011	83	123	n
1	01	0100	1010100	84	124	o
1	01	0101	1010101	85	125	p
1	01	0110	1010110	86	126	q
1	01	0111	1010111	87	127	r
1	01	1000	1011000	88	130	s
1	01	1001	1011001	89	131	t
1	01	1010	1011010	90	132	u
1	01	1011	1011011	91	133	v
1	01	1100	1011100	92	134	w
1	01	1101	1011101	93	135	x
1	01	1110	1011110	94	136	y
1	01	1111	1011111	95	137	z
1	10	0000	1100000	96	140		Dial 0
1	10	0001	1100001	97	141		Dial 1
1	10	0010	1100010	98	142		Dial 2
1	10	0011	1100011	99	143		Dial 3
1	10	0100	1100100	100	144		Dial 4
1	10	0101	1100101	101	145		Dial 5
1	10	0110	1100110	102	146		Dial 6
1	10	0111	1100111	103	147		Dial 7
1	10	1000	1101000	104	150		Dial 8
1	10	1001	1101001	105	151		Dial 9
1	10	1010	1101010	106	152		Start of Control Block
1	10	1011	1101011	107	153		Start of Block
1	10	1100	1101100	108	154		Spare
1	10	1101	1101101	109	155		Spare
1	10	1110	1101110	110	156		Spare
1	10	1111	1101111	111	157		Spare
1	11	0000	1110000	112	160		Ready to Transmit
1	11	0001	1110001	113	161		Ready to Receive
1	11	0010	1110010	114	162		Not Ready to Receive
1	11	0011	1110011	115	163		End of Blockette
1	11	0100	1110100	116	164		End of Block
1	11	0101	1110101	117	165		End of File
1	11	0110	1110110	118	166		End of Control Block
1	11	0111	1110111	119	167		Acknowledge Receipt
1	11	1000	1111000	120	170		Repeat Block
1	11	1001	1111001	121	171		Spare
1	11	1010	1111010	122	172		Interpret Sign
1	11	1011	1111011	123	173		Non-Interpret Sign
1	11	1100	1111100	124	174		Control Word Follows
1	11	1101	1111101	125	175		S.A.C.
1	11	1110	1111110	126	176		Special Character
1	11	1111	1111111	127	177		Delete

References

• Charles E. Mackenzie (1980). Coded Character Sets: History and Development. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-14460-3.
• Article by W.F. Leubbert, 1960 Accessed 25 September 2008.