punch card

n.
A medium for feeding data into a computer, essentially a card punched with holes or notches to represent letters and numbers or with a pattern of holes to represent related data. Also called Hollerith card.

[techspeak] (alt.: punch card) The signature medium of computing's Stone Age, now obsolescent. The punched card actually predated computers considerably, originating in 1801 as a control device for mechanical looms. The version patented by Hollerith and used with mechanical tabulating machines in the 1890 U.S. Census was a piece of cardboard about 90 mm by 215 mm. There is a widespread myth that it was designed to fit in the currency trays used for that era's larger dollar bills, but recent investigations have falsified this.

IBM (which originated as a tabulating-machine manufacturer) married the punched card to computers, encoding binary information as patterns of small rectangular holes; one character per column, 80 columns per card. Other coding schemes, sizes of card, and hole shapes were tried at various times.

The 80-column width of most character terminals is a legacy of the IBM punched card; so is the size of the quick-reference cards distributed with many varieties of computers even today. See chad, chad box, eighty-column mind, green card, dusty deck, code grinder.

---

Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: a card on which data can be recorded in the form of punched holes
  Synonyms: punched card, Hollerith card

---

Dansk (Danish)
n. - hulkort

Français (French)
n. - carte perforée

Deutsch (German)
n. - (Comp.) Lochkarte

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - διάτρητο μηχανογραφικό δελτίο, διάτρητη κάρτα

Italiano (Italian)
scheda perforata

Português (Portuguese)
n. - cartão perfurado (m)

Русский (Russian)
перфокарта

Español (Spanish)
n. - tarjeta perforada

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - hålkort

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
工作时间记录卡片

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 工作時間記錄卡片

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 천공카드, 펀치카드

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - パンチカード, 穴あきカード

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮כרטיס מנוקב להעברת מידע או הוראות למחשב (אמצעי מיושן)‬

If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.

To select your translation preferences click here.

punch card machine