Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1931 Punch Card

The dispute between the area code and the standard code lasted for a while, and finally, because the area code was directly linked to the Chinese character national standard code of the electronic computer in the future, it won the tendentious approval of most participants.

"The agricultural port needs to control the land, the industrial port needs to control the technology, the financial port needs to control the currency, the military and political port needs to control the seats, and when it comes to our IT industry, we must control the standards." Feng Nuo smiled mysteriously, thinking to himself.

What the Government Affairs Council wants to control is big data.Feng Nuo was very clear about the significance of statistics to the Council of Government Affairs.Without numbers, all governance measures are like trees without roots and water without sources.However, the Government Administration System of the Senate has a very large demand for data collection and collation, and there are many places that need to be spread out.

"If 4 digits are used to encode one Chinese character, each punched card can store 1 Chinese characters." The encoding scheme itself and the representation encoded on the punched card are actually two issues.From the point of view of punching or not as a binary system, each column actually has 20 bits, a nibble of information.Enough to encode more than 2 characters.

"This is too little. It seems that it is not as rich as the information content of 80 English letters. It takes 7 cards to post a Weibo, without counting punctuation marks." Another person said.

"A 4-digit Chinese code can be expressed in two columns in practice, but the difficulty of mechanical design will increase. Please refer to Appendix 3 for the specific plan."

原来冯诺的设想是每列打3个孔来表示两位数字，其中在每列的0-9位置上打两个孔表示两位数字。高区11行打孔表示下面穿孔的两位数字从小到大排列，12行穿孔表示下面穿孔的两位数字从大到小排列。

"What if the two numbers are the same?"

“11行和12行同时穿孔，0-9只打1个孔。下一页有说明。”

However, although the 3-hole method can reduce the length of the Chinese character code to half and allow a card to store up to 40 Chinese characters, it is obvious that the design of the electromechanical system and the control system is not a one-day job. The card design of the census uses 4 digits to encode Chinese characters. After all, the names of Europeans and Americans often have more than a dozen letters, and the names of Chinese characters are not too long in comparison.

Feng Nuo then briefly introduced some of the contents of the materials, and finally said deliberately: "We are in a hurry to do this work, and some of the materials are not in place, and we will continue to improve them in the future. Supervising... Secretary of State Ma on the machine The research on traditional computers has been going on for a long time and is very in-depth, and I hope it can give us some guidance in the direction and supplements in details.”

Ma Qianzhu said with a smile, "I made up my mind to come here today only with my ears. But you have such a heated discussion, so I will just say a few words as if I am an enthusiast. Your work is still very thorough and meticulous. I will only mention two things. One is the manufacture of electromechanical equipment. Are you sure about the development of relays? The work should be easy before difficult, and urgent before slow. As far as the census is concerned, what is the most urgent thing? Punching machines, mass production, reliable, portable and durable The punching machine, and the punching machine is the most basic and simplest equipment in the punching machine system. It is also the easiest to design and manufacture. The investigation takes time, and the subsequent equipment can be developed and manufactured at the same time. When the investigation is completed and the cards are collected, It’s okay to wait, it’s better to let the data wait for the machine than to let the machine wait for the data. This is the first point.”

"The second point is the card. In my opinion, the accuracy requirement should be in line with our current productivity. I suggest that you invite the comrades from the paper mill and printing factory to discuss it. Delong is now making paper money, so you should also listen to their experience. Listen. At this stage, what is the card standard that is mature in technology, stable in mass production, and acceptable in cost? It doesn’t matter if it is slower or thicker at the beginning. With a prototype system, things will be easy to handle later..."

"I can add the technology of punched cards in 1890. I also checked some information before. The 1890 U.S. census also used 80 columns of cards, but at that time they punched round holes, and the size of the cards was not the same as the IBM card we are talking about now. Similarly, the punching equipment is extremely simple, almost similar to the pliers we used to check tickets on trains in the past. Manual punching does not have the function of printing the corresponding value. The error rate and skew law are as high as 1/20. The sorting machine and The tabulating machine must not be too precise. But such a simple level of machinery and equipment is still hundreds of times more efficient than the statistical efficiency of the 1880 census. We can completely surpass this level.”

"Industrialization is not achieved overnight, and the technological tree will not stand alone. Every point must go hand in hand. The hand-cranked computer project exposed many shortcomings in our mechanical manufacturing, and also drove some of our technological leaps; the punched card computer involved All aspects of industrial technology in the pre-digital age will also encounter such and other problems, and overcoming these difficulties one by one will mark that our industrialization level has reached a new level."

……

Feng Nuo nodded while taking notes. Although these instructions are not very useful technically, they can write a news article and send it to the "Lingao Times".To fully reflect the "leadership's attention" - it is much easier to do things.

In the end, the plan of the punching machine was determined to be an all-mechanical structure. Due to the temporary delay of the 3-hole double-column Chinese character coding scheme proposed by Feng Nuo, the punching machine can now completely imitate the IBM-1923 digital punching machine in 011.The punching machine was suitable for 45-column cards in the early days. After the 1929-column standard IBM card was determined in 80, it was redesigned to be able to adapt to the standard IBM card scheme.This model is punched without English letters, and it is an all-digital printer.There are 14 keys, respectively 0-9, X, Y, S, R, of which 12 keys are punched on rows 0-9, 11 (X), 12 (Y), and S is an empty column without punching (Space), R is the end punch (Release).

IBM-011 is small in size and easy to implement, and it is sufficient for the current census needs.The only regret is that there is no physical imitation. Feng Nuo found some technical parameters and a few blurry photos in the data center.Fortunately, the principle is relatively clear, and the veterans of the mechanical port have learned from the typewriter project team several times, and finally finalized the drawings.

After the project was approved, Feng Nuo had no specific work for the time being.He is responsible for the technical route and standard issues, but the implementation of the manufacturing is a mechanical matter.Jikou has already written a long memorandum, listing the technical difficulties that need to be "tackled" for this project and the various materials and process issues that need to be matched.Feng Nuo also received a copy of this memo, but he couldn't understand most of it, so he put it on hold for now.

"There is nothing I can do in the future, but I still have to keep an eye on this project, which is the key work of my transformation."

He inspected the computer room again, and after confirming that everything was normal, he decided to take a walk in front - he hadn't been to Xu Yicheng's place for a long time, and speaking of which, this project had a lot to do with him.

The relationship between Xu Yicheng and Feng Nuo, from an administrative point of view, is the relationship between the superior and the subordinate, grasping the difference between the general and the division, from the perspective of the computer, it is the relationship between the peripherals and the CPU, and if it is replaced by the human body, it is the relationship between the brain, eyes, and arms. For most of the veterans and naturalized cadres who often come to the computing and data center for business, Feng Nuo hardly exists, and Xu Yicheng is the symbol of computing and data center.

Of course, this may not be a good thing for Feng Nuo, who has been exhausted by repairing the computer and maintaining the computer room. After all, all chores are under the control of Mr. Xu. He only needs to be responsible for technical issues.
He wanted to ask Feng Shan to bring the "memorandum" he put on his desk-this is the report he has to submit every week, the content is the status quo, problems and improvement measures.This is an important proof for Xu Laowu to fight in the planning academy.

He shouted a few times and got no response. He remembered that she went to find a few naturalized technicians for a "project coordination meeting" today.Because she and Feng Nuo went to the mechanical port very frequently some time ago, in the end Feng Shan did not choose the topic of basic science like Zhong Xiaoying, but chose the topic of research on the thermal processing properties of alloys and submitted it for approval.

Feng Nuo looked at the operation of the computer room again through the glass, looked at the temperature and humidity records of the computer room, and then checked the backup power computer room - the battery size of Lingao's self-produced UPS is very large, but the capacity is very small.In order to ensure the stable operation of the two backup power systems, they had to be given a dedicated computer room.Enjoy the same treatment as the server.

All the indexes are within the normal range today, and the equipment in the computer room is also normal. There is no abnormal sound except for the monotonous and steady hum of the fan.

He told another part-time elder who was on shift to guard the computer room a few precautions, and walked outside by himself.

Opening the first airtight door of the computer room, he changed out of the anti-static overalls and shoes in the locker room, and put on an ordinary veteran uniform. Then he opened the second airtight door and entered the passage leading to the outside world.

He received a call from the printing factory early in the morning, informing him to participate in a seminar on improving punched card printing technology. The printing accuracy of numbers on punched cards has not been ideal, and he can only make do with it. However, the cost of printing banknotes is too high. Breakthrough.

"The hurdle of the card has passed, and the census can finally be started from June. This project has achieved initial results, and it will be convenient to continue fishing in the future. Although I am only a doctor who has not graduated, the previous boss of this trick is A hundred tests and a hundred spirits." He breathed a sigh of relief, thinking wretchedly.

Although Feng Nuo was also surnamed Feng in the old time and space, his name was not Feng Nuo.As he was walking, he suddenly remembered that he had time-traveled and reported this name because he was thinking that in the new time and space, even if he was not as good as Von Neumann, he must be at least half of it.

He opened the door to the outside world.

This is the beginning, he thought, finding the morning sun a little harsh.

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Next update: Volume 36: Mainland China - Guangdong and Guangxi Raiders Section [-]

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(End of this chapter)