IBM card sorter

The punch card sorter (English sorter) was a tool of the electromechanical data processing. With his hole cards could be sorted or certain hole cards ( placed in a certain order) sorted out.

  • 3.1 Technical Description
  • 3.2 Course of sorting operations
  • 3.3 Numerical sorting
  • 3.4 Alphanumeric sorting
  • 3.5 sorting

Stand- alone device

The sorter was not a peripheral device of a computer, but a stand- alone device. He was not ' programmed', but set to the functions performed by manual switch. Unlike a punch card tabulating machine mixer or a punch card sorter ever run could only process a certain column.

With the help of the sorter hole cards could be placed in the order required for mixing or for processing. For example, the hole cards created by a bank were generated separately according to document types (such as deposits, withdrawals, transfers, checks ) and unsorted in this order delivered as a stack. The punch cards had to be sorted but for the reservation processing by account number.

History

Hand grader

The mechanical hole Kart Ensor Exploder goes directly back to the founder of automatic data processing Herman Hollerith. Even his machine end of the 19th century had bins. The hole card is inserted by hand into the reading station, a flap on the bin signaled the "Operator" he had to store the card in which tray.

Machine screen

The first 20 automated sorting machines provided the Tabulating Machine Company to the U.S. Census Bureau in October 1901. Began the age of automation of data processing.

From 1908 Hollerith produced a revision of the sorter, he created a vertical machine, the (IBM) Hollerith 070 Vertical Sorter, who " did not take up too much space in small railroad offices ." This reached a capacity of 250 cards per minute. In 1928, he was succeeded by the more compact and less expensive model 071, which could sort 150 cards per minute.

As the first device had in 1925 presented 080 magnetically controlled switches and thus could support output almost double to 450 cards per minute. The 1929 published 075 Counting Sorter corresponded to the 080 with an additional panel with a counter for each subject, so that the number of the respective holes could be counted.

1948 appeared the punch card sorter 082 as a further development of the model 080 with a capacity of 650 cards per minute and corresponding the contemporary taste panel.

The IBM 083 model came on the market in 1958 and was about 1000 cards per minute sort. The IBM 084 model came in 1960 on the market and was able to sort approximately 2000 cards per minute.

Lochkartensorierer not manufactured by IBM. Thus, the firm mouth from Schwabach specialized early 60s to small table-top units. The smallest version had it only 6 subjects. The first 5 took this optional cards with holes for 0 or 5 .4 .9 on the sixth cards without punching in the selected area. Numerical Sortiervorgaenge could thus be done with 2 runs per column. In addition, the columns could be selected 10/11/12 firmly to allow alphanumeric searches. With a width of less than one meter so could all the relevant search and sort operations are performed directly in the office.

End of the punch-card era

From the mid- 1960s magnetic tapes spread to the data center as a medium for storing and sorting data. They were faster and had a much higher capacity in terms of volume and weight. Mid-1970s was largely replaced except use and also for data acquisition of magnetic tape cassettes and / or floppy the hole card. Thus disappeared the punch card sorter from the data centers.

An exception is the American election system; there hole cards were used in Hollerith format in the recent past. In the U.S. presidential election in 2000, however, it came to margins in the vote count in the state of Florida; the voting system by means of punched cards was criticized. Therefore, the hole cards, starting with the 2004 presidential election, abolished in this area and replaced by electronic voting systems.

" Voting shall be by letter or online voting and - as in some areas in Idaho - some even with punch cards. " So when Obama 2012 Election

Punch-card sorting method

Punched card sorter, a mechanical implementation of the Department distributing, and radix sort are called.

Described here in the most commonly used hole card type ( 80 columns, each column the decimal digits 0 through 9 plus two Überlochungen ) and mainly with reference to the IBM 082 Sorter / 083rd

Technical Description

  • In the input tray, the punch cards were issued as a stack. It took about 1000-3000 depending on the type punch cards.
  • About mechanical switch has been set which column is how to sort. Zones or number sorting.
  • The individual cards are removed through rubber rollers from the lower end of the stack.
  • About electrical contacts (on a brush or a " knife roller ") in the reading position of the punched card code has been identified in the column waiting to be processed.
  • According to the code read and the setting made was the read map using rollers, electrically and mechanically, is controlled magnetically via a guide in one of the 13 output bins on some devices: for 0-9, for the two over Loch zones and to ' empty '.
  • So There were several punch-card partial stacks that were fed the next sorting steps again or were used ( the end of the order ) for processing.

Depending on the performance of the sorter could this sort in one pass several thousand punched cards per minute. Here, because the cards were physically moved and visible, this was - eg for visitors of data centers - an impressive demonstration of the " power of modern technology."

Another schematic representation for code scanning and for driving the storage compartments, valid for the IBM 082 Sorter, can be found in the web links.

Sequence of sort operations

The operator of the sorter usually operated under circumstances in which was described in detail each sort operation, which hole card deck according to which columns in which order and how (numeric or alphanumeric; ascending or descending order ) are to be sorted.

The settings for sorting each column were made ​​before sorting: sort column; drive which slots? The input maps had in the input tray refills so long to be had gone through until all the cards. The output in the output trays punch-card partial stack had to be fed to the next sorting pass in the absolute correct order; with large amounts of data on this storage in intermediate compartments (cabinet ) was required. This required high concentration, because in case of errors ( stack falls down - a "disaster " ) usually had to be repeated ( all columns) of the entire sorting pass.

In multicolumn sorting each column sorting pass was required. It was started with the least significant column, then sorts the second lowest, etc. - until the most significant column. Sorting eg by date ( YYMMDD ) so ran from right to left. Details shows the web link " function diagram ".

Numerical sorting

For columns with numeric-only content enough for a sorting pass each column. The card stack element 0 to 9 were sorted ready ( at one -digit sorting) or had to be accurately presented again to sort the next column in the order of 0-9.

Alphanumeric sorting

The single column needed to be sorted ( up to four) runs in several. Here, the first pass was to sort by the Überlochungen including zero. More runs on the same column, but after the belonging to the Überlochung decimal values ​​and for each value separated zone were ultimately the desired card sequence.

Sort out

From a hole card stack certain hole cards had to be sorted out again. Example: From the already processed, and address and account master data containing hole deck had the ' bookings ' are rejected. The result stack could be subsequently processed separately or be outsourced to punch cards archive. Prerequisite: The sorted out cards must be clearly visible in one or more columns. To this end was often a so-called ' card type ' in the first digits of the hole card included.

Technically, the sorting was a variant of sorting: It has only been set so that only hole cards with a specific content in the storage compartment, while the others were placed in the remaining compartment.

Manual ( English, PDF )

Sorting

  • IBM: IBM 83 Sorter: Manual of Operation December, 1959, 222-66395-5.
Standalone software Floppy disk
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