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A Punched card sorter is a machine for
sorting Sorting refers to ordering data in an increasing or decreasing manner according to some linear relationship among the data items. # ordering: arranging items in a sequence ordered by some criterion; # categorizing: grouping items with similar pro ...
decks of
punched 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. Sorting was a major activity in most facilities that processed data on punched cards using
unit record equipment Starting at the end of the nineteenth century, well before the advent of electronic computers, data processing was performed using electromechanical machines collectively referred to as unit record equipment, electric accounting machines (EAM) o ...
. The work flow of many processes required decks of cards to be put into some specific order as determined by the data punched in the cards. The same deck might be sorted differently for different processing steps. A popular family of sorters, the IBM 80 series sorters, sorted input cards into one of 13 pockets depending on the holes punched in a selected column and the sorter's settings.


Basic operation

The basic operation of a card sorter is to take a punched card, examine a single column, and place the card into a selected pocket. There are twelve rows on a punched card, and thirteen pockets in the sorter; one pocket is for blanks, rejects, and errors. Cards are normally passed through the sorter face down with the bottom edge ("9-edge") first. A small metal brush or optical sensor is positioned so that, as each card goes through the sorter, one column passes under the brush or optical sensor. The holes sensed in that column together with the settings of the sorter controls determine which pocket the card is to be directed to. This directing is done by slipping the card into a stack of metal strips (or ''chute blades'') that run the length of the sorter feed mechanism. Each blade ends above one of the output pockets, and the card is thus routed to the designated pocket.


Sorting operations

Multiple column sorting was commonly done by first sorting the least significant column, then proceeding, column by column, to the most significant column. This is called a least significant digit
radix sort In computer science, radix sort is a non-comparative sorting algorithm. It avoids comparison by creating and distributing elements into buckets according to their radix. For elements with more than one significant digit, this bucketing process i ...
. Numeric columns have one punch in rows 0-9, possibly a sign overpunch in rows 11-12, and can be sorted in a single pass through the sorter. Alphabetic columns have a zone punch in rows 12, 11, or 0, a digit punch in one of the rows 1-9, and can be sorted by passing some or all of the cards through the sorter twice on that column. For more details of punched card codes see Punched card#IBM 80-column format and character codes. There were several methods used for alphabetical sorting, depending on the features provided by the particular sorter and the characteristics of the data to be sorted. A commonly used method on the 082 and earlier sorters was to sort the cards twice on the same column, first on digit rows 1-9, then on the zone rows 12, 11, and 0 (or vice versa, zone rows first then digit rows). Operator switches allow zone-sorting by "switching off" rows 1-9 for the second pass of the card for each column. Other special
characters Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...
and
punctuation mark Punctuation (or sometimes interpunction) is the use of spacing, conventional signs (called punctuation marks), and certain typographical devices as aids to the understanding and correct reading of written text, whether read silently or aloud. An ...
s were added to the card
code In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communication ...
, involving as many as three punches per column (and in 1964 with the introduction of
EBCDIC Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code (EBCDIC; ) is an eight-bit character encoding used mainly on IBM mainframe and IBM midrange computer operating systems. It descended from the code used with punched cards and the corresponding six- ...
as many as six punches per column). The 083 and 084 sorters recognized these multiple digit or multiple zone punches, sorting them to the error pocket.


Earlier sorters

Original census sorting box, 1890, manual. Sorting cards became an issue during the 1900 agricultural census, so
Herman Hollerith Herman Hollerith (February 29, 1860 – November 17, 1929) was a German-American statistician, inventor, and businessman who developed an electromechanical tabulating machine The tabulating machine was an electromechanical machine designed t ...
's company developed the 1901 Hollerith Automatic Horizontal Sorter, a sorter with horizontal pockets.IBM Archives faq
/ref> In 1908, he designed the more compact Hollerith 070 Vertical Sorting Machine that sorted 250 cards per minute. The Type 71 Vertical Sorter came out in 1928. It had 12 pockets that could hold 80 cards. It could sort 150 cards per minute. The Type 75, Model 1, 19??, 400 cards per minute The Type 75, Model 2, 19??, 250 cards per minute


IBM 80 series Sorters

Card Sorters in the IBM 80 series included: *IBM 80 Electric Punched Card Sorting Machine, model 1, Introduced by IBM in 1925, 450 cards per minute. This sorter was almost twice the speed of the older
Hollerith 70 Herman Hollerith (February 29, 1860 – November 17, 1929) was a German-American statistician, inventor, and businessman who developed an electromechanical tabulating machine for punched cards to assist in summarizing information and, later, in ...
vertical sorter and used an entirely new magnetically operated horizontal design. At the close of 1943, IBM had 10,200 of these units on rental. *IBM 80, model 2, 192?, 250 cards per minute *IBM 81 Sorter, ???? *IBM 82 Sorter, 1949. Sorted cards at 650/minute *IBM 83 Sorter, 1955. Sorted cards at 1000/minute *IBM 84 Sorter, 1959. Sorted cards at 2000/minute In August 1957, a basic 082 rented for $55 per month; an 083 for twice that. By 1969, only the 82, 83 & 84 were made available for rental by IBM.


See also

*
Unit record equipment Starting at the end of the nineteenth century, well before the advent of electronic computers, data processing was performed using electromechanical machines collectively referred to as unit record equipment, electric accounting machines (EAM) o ...
*
Bucket sort Bucket sort, or bin sort, is a sorting algorithm that works by distributing the elements of an array into a number of buckets. Each bucket is then sorted individually, either using a different sorting algorithm, or by recursively applying the b ...


Notes and references


Further reading

*
IBM Archives: IBM Type 80
* *. Has descriptions, photos and rental prices.


External links




The Computer Collector: IBM Sorters (Models 75,80,82,83)
Appears to be pages from the 1955 IBM Sales Manual.
YouTube video of IBM 083 Card Sorter in operation.

Informational film from 1968 showing various operations on an IBM 082 Card Sorter.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ibm 80 Series Card Sorters
80 series The was an electric multiple unit (EMU) train type operated by Japanese National Railways (JNR) from 1950 until 1983. A total of 652 vehicles were built. Variants * 80-0 series * 80-100/200 series: Trains introduced from 1956 with increased se ...