IBM 557 Alphabetic Interpreter??

From: Frank McConnell <fmc_at_reanimators.org>
Date: Mon Mar 29 23:23:51 1999

Sellam Ismail <dastar_at_ncal.verio.com> wrote:
> Does anyone know what the function of an IBM 557 Alphabetic Interpreter
> is/was?

Yeah, it "interprets" punched cards, meaning it reads the punches and
prints human-readable characters, probably across the 12-edge.
"Alphabetic" probably means "can do letters too" (in addition to
0-9).

I vaguely remember one that used to sit in the University
of Maryland College Park Computer Science Center dispatch room,
as I recall it would print sixty-mumble characters across the
the 12-edge and put the next eleventy-so off to the right
about where the 12-punches would be.

-Frank McConnell
Received on Mon Mar 29 1999 - 23:23:51 BST