Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1930 Card Standard
Ma Qianzhu has lost a lot of hair since becoming the secretary of state of the "most powerful government affairs council since D-day".His schedule is measured in minutes.It was a great "grace" to find two hours to attend the meeting.Feng Nuo knew that he had "scratched an itch".

In order to fully explain his ideas and plans, although the conditions did not allow him to make a PPT with a glass plate, he still specially made the "outline" and "materials".The former is for leaders to read the key points; the latter is for details, and leaders can read it carefully if they are interested.

As for the other participants, they are all experts, as long as they provide a simple technical explanation.

The meeting was held in the conference room of the Government Affairs Council. Feng Nuo first introduced his technical ideas and various technical solutions currently under discussion, and then got to the point.

"Why use punched cards? In fact, it is very clear that it is to solve the three major difficulties in data processing. First, there are too many document sizes and shapes; second, there are too many transactions recorded on a single document; third, document records data There are too many forms and methods. In other words, it is a matter of standardization.”

Feng Nuo paused for a while to calm down his nervousness, feeling that his voice was a bit high.He didn't expect that Yang Yun really mentioned the punched card computer system in the report, and he also caught the big fish of Duke Du.Feng Nuo is too aware of the importance of the leader's visit to the business. This is not just a matter of showing his face in front of the leader. Even if the leader leaves without saying a word, it will also have a very important role in promoting the future of this project. , It is the same reason as asking the leader to inscribe a word when doing business in the past.This opportunity must be seized.

The project establishment seminar of punched card computer has already been held once, and the participants and general plan have been basically determined.The meeting was mostly a discussion of "punch cards" themselves.Because this punched card computer is different from a hand-cranked computer, the specifications and various standards of the data carrier—the punched card—must be determined before proceeding to the next step of mechanical design.The Senate has no real objects to imitate, so it can only be reversed based on the information and the card itself.Therefore, the first thing in the project is to determine the standard for punched cards.

Of course, Feng Nuo tried his best to get the task in charge of this area. He had already done a lot of research and was a representative of the Planning Institute, and those veterans who were engaged in machinery and electricity were not very interested in this matter.

"Therefore, we have to determine the specifications of punched cards from the very beginning, at least in all applications in the civilian field. There are 45 columns, 80 columns, 90 columns and other types of punched cards, but the most common one is also the earliest in the United States in 1890. Used in the census was the 'Hollerith' punched card, later commonly known as the 'IBM card'. The card was made of strong and durable cardstock and printed with 10 rows x 80 columns of numbers, each row of numbers being 0- 9. In addition, there are two rows of punching positions on the card, 11 and 12, but there are no printing marks. Row 11 is also called row X, and row 12 is also called row Y. Its position is actually located above the number row. These two rows, plus Row 0, also collectively known as 'three-row area' or 'high area'".

"In the past, punched cards were used in a relatively short period of time in China, and the industry was relatively limited. Therefore, the standards for punched cards completely copied the standards for IBM cards. The manufacturing standards are as follows: rectangular cards with missing corners, the long side in the horizontal direction, and a length of 187.32 mm. Not more than 0.12 mm; the vertical direction is the short side, the length is 82.55 mm, the error is not more than 0.18 mm; the thickness is 0.175 mm, the error is not more than 0.005 mm. The paper fiber direction should be horizontal. The tolerance of straightness on each side is 0.08 mm , the non-parallel tolerance of each corresponding side is 0.08 millimeters, the non-perpendicularity tolerance of two adjacent sides does not exceed 5 minutes, and the angle between missing corners is 60 degrees. Please check the information you have distributed.”

"Then there are punching specifications, the card reference line X, that is, the horizontal reference line is the straight line on the upper edge of the card, the card reference point is the point on the right edge that is 41.27mm away from the X reference line, and the card reference line Y is the point that passes through the reference point and is in line with the reference line The straight line perpendicular to X. The 80 straight lines of the card parallel to the reference line Y are called the 'columns' of the card, with a column spacing of 2.21 mm, and the 12 straight lines of the card parallel to the reference line X are called the 'rows' of the card, with a row spacing of 6.35 mm The shape of the perforation is rectangular, the center of the hole is located at the intersection of the row and the column, the long side is parallel to Y, the short side is parallel to X, the size is 3.2mm on the long side, 1.4mm on the short side, and the error is not more than 0.05mm. On the same row The minimum edge distance of each code hole should be greater than 0.51 mm, and the error between the center line of the hole and the standard line of the row and column should be less than 0.25 mm."

The room was silent, and the participants were probably wondering whether they could build a device to read and punch such a delicate card.But what Feng Nuo thought was that he forgot to invite the people from the paper mill to participate in the discussion. It is very difficult to say whether it can produce paper that meets the specifications. If you want to climb a technology tree, every step is full of pitfalls. .But he was already prepared, and continued:
"This is the punched card standard released in China in the late 70s. Of course, its manufacturing accuracy was formulated to meet the processing speed of 1000 to 2000 cards per minute for the punched card computer system at that time. We currently do not have a punched card computer system. Early card standards, but it is certain that the technology of the early 20th century could not meet such precision standards. In fact, in a source from the 50s, the size of the punched card was simply introduced as 18.6 cm x 8.3 cm. Therefore, The precision and error standards of punched cards suitable for our self-made equipment have yet to be further explored in development."

"Each column of the punched card can be used to record a character, including numbers from 0 to 9 and 26 English letters, as well as several symbols, such as equal signs, percent signs, etc. Each column records a character, and the entire card can record 80 characters."

"Characters are implemented by punching holes. If a column wants to express a number, punch holes directly in the corresponding row from row 0 to row 9. If a column wants to express an English letter, it needs to punch holes in the high area and the number area at the same time. Usually The value of this column will also be printed on the top as a reference, please refer to Appendix 2 for the specific plan.”

Each column of punched cards can store 1 English letter, and the scheme is: 12-1 A 11-1 J 0-1 / 12-2 B 11-2 K 0-2 S 12-3 C 11-3 L 0 -3 T 12-4 D 11-4 M 0-4 U 12-5 E 11-5 N 0-5 V 12-6 F 11-6 O 0-6 W 12-7 G 11-7 P 0-7 X 12-8 H 11-8 Q 0-8 Y 12-9 I 11-9 R 0-9 Z
"Punching holes in the three-line area, with 1-9 number line punching, a total of 3x9=27 solutions, except for the special symbol 'slash' in the 0-1 position, which can just represent 26 letters. Interestingly, the reason Use 0-1 to represent the slash, because in the whole scheme, only this code has the shortest distance between the two holes, and it is difficult to realize the technology. In addition, other special symbols can use several schemes of piercing 3 holes in each column Solved. The Hollerith code only uses hole 8 as the matching hole, but it also reveals that the 3-hole code is technically possible.”

"The reason why the 3-hole coding is mentioned is to consider the problem of Chinese coding."

At this time, there were many whispering voices in the venue.The encoding of Chinese is a major problem in the application of punched cards by the Senate.At that time, punched card computers were not produced in China, and they were not widely used. In fact, there was no standard Chinese encoding method.

Compared with the data storage carriers familiar to the veterans, the punched card has a pitifully smaller capacity. Each 18.7x8.3 card can only store 80 characters, which are only English letters.If it’s government or commercial business processing, it’s fine. At worst, standard codes will be used more. For example, the national standard code system promoted by Skade and Hong Huangnan a few years ago has finally come into play.

As far as the needs of the current census are concerned, questions such as gender, place of origin, place of birth, time of birth, current residence, education level, family composition, etc. can be easily solved by coding. In the past, only 18 digits were used on the 6-digit ID card. The digit represents the birthplace of each person in the country.The reason is simple. There are many people who hit each code, so it is appropriate to compile a code list.People who have studied databases can easily find that they should do this by drawing an ER diagram.But there is only one field, which is the name, and the problem of Chinese encoding will never be bypassed.The specific design of each field of the census form can be left to the people of the Ministry of Minsheng, but the Chinese coding must be solved now.

"Actually, the problem of Chinese encoding is not difficult to solve. The problem is that it takes up too much space."

"The "Chinese Character Coded Character Set for Information Interchange" promulgated in 1980, commonly known as GB2312 encoding, not only stipulates the representation method of Chinese characters on computers, but also defines a set of methods for representing Chinese characters using 4 decimal numbers, which is the location code The location code contains 3755 first-level Chinese characters, 3008 second-level Chinese characters, and 682 symbols, which basically meet the current needs. Therefore, the simplest Chinese encoding method is to encode a Chinese character every 4 columns. Everyone painted themselves during the college entrance examination name, the area code was used at that time.”

"At present, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has basically completed the laying of the telegraph system across the island, and several batches of telegraph operators have been trained. I wonder if it is more convenient to directly use our standard Chinese code? It can also be used by hand." At this time, there was no much speech. Shaozong spoke.

"The area codes are sorted in the order of pinyin in each level of Chinese characters, so you don't need much training. On the contrary, the standard codes are sorted by radicals, which is actually much more difficult than mastering the area codes."

"The standard code has been in its infancy since the end of the 19th century, and it was compiled directly from the Qing Dynasty. It is the natural choice for encoding Chinese characters at this stage."

"Easier to speak or easier to write? The standard code starts from the shape of the characters because the people who started using telegrams are the educated class. Our national popularization education has actually subverted the previous system by starting with pinyin. Of course, it is more convenient for ordinary people to use location codes. "

"U.S. passports have always used standard codes."

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Next update: Volume 35: Mainland China - Guangdong and Guangxi Raiders Section [-]

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(End of this chapter)