Changing control panel on IBM 650 card reader

The IBM 533 Input-Output Unit, announced on July 2, 1953, was a

punched card reader A computer punched card reader or just computer card reader is a computer input device used to read computer programs in either source or executable form and data from punched cards. A computer card punch is a computer output device that punches ...

and punch that served as the primary input-output unit for the

IBM 650 The IBM 650 Magnetic Drum Data-Processing Machine is an early digital computer produced by IBM in the mid-1950s. It was the first mass produced computer in the world. Almost 2,000 systems were produced, the last in 1962, and it was the first ...

computer. It had two independent card paths, one for reading and one for punching.

IBM card A punched card (also punch card or punched-card) is a piece of stiff paper that holds digital data represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Punched cards were once common in data processing applications or to di ...

s were fed face down, 12-edge first. All 80 columns could be read and punched by the computer as numeric data, but alphanumeric reading was severely limited on the basic 650 and require special control panel wiring. The 533 could punch 100 cards per minute and had a set of read brushes downstream from the punch station that were used to verify proper punching. The card reader was similar to that on the

IBM 402 The IBM 402 and IBM 403 Accounting Machines were tabulating machines introduced by International Business Machines in the late 1940s. Overview The 402 could read punched cards at a speed of 80 to 150 cards per minute, depending on process op ...

accounting machine and could read 200 cards per minute. The 533 was controlled by a

plugboard A plugboard or control panel (the term used depends on the application area) is an array of jacks or sockets (often called hubs) into which patch cords can be inserted to complete an electrical circuit. Control panels are sometimes used to di ...

control panel, typical of IBM unit record equipment of the time. p. 19 ff A lower performance (and presumably cheaper) model, the IBM 537, was introduced September 4, 1956. It had a single card path for reading and punching and operated at 155 cards per minute. On January 12, 1959, IBM introduced two faster 650 peripherals, the IBM 543 Card Reader and the IBM 544 Card Punch. Both operated at up to 250 cards per minute. All were withdrawn on August 18, 1969.http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/650/650_cm1.html IBM 650 Components

References

{{IBM vacuum tube computers IBM vacuum tube computers