[GreenKeys] Universal Code Charts

[Ralph Irish]

In looking through one of my file cabinet drawers I noticed a couple of copies of 

	"Universal Code Charts"

This is a 21 page document with every possible combination of 8 'punches' or bits,

	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0   through  1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

for various data systems.

Across the top of the chart is:

    KEY       |                PAPER TAPE CODES                   |             BCD CODES             | CARD CODES
HEX   EBDCIC  |  ASCII	FRIDEN	 IBM 1050   BAUDOT    EIA    ICL  |   IBM   HON.   NCR   BURR.  ICL   |  IBM   ICL
              |                                                   |                                   |


Down the left side of the charts are the HEX codes from 00  through  FF across 18 pages of the set.

This Chart was created by the now defunct Mohawk Data Sciences Corporation, an early leader in 'direct to tape'
hardware which greatly reduced the need for punch cards in the computer world.

Our Ford plant used this hardware initially to record time card punches at a central location.  All of the time
card stations were wired to this machine, and at 'clock out times', you could stand outside the room and watch
the magnetic tape advancing, bit by bit as several hundred employees headed for home.  

At 1 AM, someone came to that office and typed out some sort of 'end of day' characters on the tape, and it
was ready for the next activity.  I think that a roll of tape lasted for a full week, and at some point, it
was exchanged for a new, blank tape, and the finished one was taken to Ford Payroll in Dearborn, Michigan for
paycheck processing.

- - - -

This chart includes every combination of 8 bits, to include both odd parity and even parity of every possible
computer character.  

If anyone is interested, I will scan a 'busy page' and e-mail it to them.  Anyone who then feels that they could
make use of the Chart is welcome to a copy, provided that I don't get a flock of requests.  I think that I have
three or four copies right now.

I could take the sheets to our local 'quick print' place and have them turned into a .pdf file for easy e-mail
distribution if requests start to pile up.  

Some of the items indicated are acronyms:  STX   SOH   ETX   HT   DEL   VT   CR   SO   FF   NUL   SI   DLE

DC1   DC2   DC3   DC4   BS   IL   NL   RES   IFS   IGS   EM   IRS   RS   IUS   US   BY   LF   ETB   ESC  

EOB   PFX   ENQ   BEL   SYN   PN   EOT   ACK   

and the list goes on.  Most of those acronyms will mean something to many of our readers.  Most are meaningless
to me.

Probably only of interest in a historic manner, but it might also be a useful source of info for a few on the
reflector.

Ultimately, all alphabetic characters, upper case and lower case are included; all punctuation; numerals and
I remind you that everything seems to be available in both  ODD PARITY  and  EVEN PARITY.


The data in this chart might possibly assist someone trying to create an emulator in software, who knows?

- - - -

Mohawk Data Science might have been trying to be 'everything to everyone' and did their best, who knows?

A lack of responses will end up with one copy being sent to Nick England for possible scanning and archiving,
and the balance being discarded.  I already have a handful of things that will be sent to Nick in the near
future.

Responding 'off list' will more likely get my attention

Ralph - W8ROI


PS   Before someone gets excited, I realize that the  BAUDOT  system only has five levels.  In this column
     one only sees the numerals  1  through  5.   Each of the 32 possible combinations has a "HEX" equivalent
     which shows in the leftmost column

R
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