Used Punch Card

Used Punch Card

Used Punch Card

This punch card was used to load software into a mainframe computer. Each byte (the letter ‘A’, for example) is entered by punching out a column of holes. Contents appear to be a line from a Fortran program. “12 PIFRA=(A(JB,37)-A(JB,99))/A(JB,47) PUX 0430” where 12 is a statement label and PUX 430, starting in column 73, would typically be a card sequence number. Per author “You may scoff at the low-tech but this data has survived longer than most CD-Rs will last – they rot in a decade or so…”. File:Used Punchcard (5151286161).jpg by Pete Birkinshaw from Manchester, UK and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

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