Patent GB-782373-A (GB)
Title: Data transfer system
IPC: G06F3/08
Filed: 1954-12-16
Abstract: 782,373. Electric digital-data-storage apparatus; digital electric calculating-apparatus. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION. Dec. 16, 1954 [Dec. 21, 1953], No. 36448/54. Class 106 (1). Apparatus for transferring data characters stored in columns and rows of a record medium to a cyclically movable magnetic storage device whereon they are arranged in a single sequence comprises means for recording like-characters from different columns of the record medium on the storage device in succession in the same cycle, the means being so controlled that different characters are recorded in respective different cycles and so that recordings made in later cycles are interspersed with recordings made in earlier cycles. As described, words, each of 11 decimal digits, the first being a sign digit, is read from a punch-card, and recorded in serial form on a magnetic drum, each digit being represented by a 7 bit biquinary code and each half-track on the drum accommodating 10 words, numbered and arranged as in Figs. 3, 4, 5. The drum and card feed mechanism are not syn - chronized but the drum must make at least one complete revolution per index point in the mechanical card feed cycle. Entry into any digit position on the drum can be selectively made by plugging together one of the 80 card read sensing brushes and the socket representing the selected digit on a plug board, Fig. 11, which is shown plugged to enter the digits of the first 11 columns on a card into word 0. Each group of sockets representing a word on the plug-board is respectively connected to the anodes of a column of a 11 x 10 matrix of cathode-follower-connected triodes, Figs. 12a, 12b (only Fig. 12b being shown), the first column corresponding to word 0. The control grids of each row of the matrix are scanned by digit pulses DGO, DG1 ... DG10, each one of which lasts for one digit, and the outputs of the columns of the matrix are fed to diode gates 170-179 which are scanned by word pulses WGO, WG1 ... WG9, each one of which lasts for one word. The outputs of these diode gates are amplified and mixed and passed to one input of a diode gate 99, Fig. 12d, where they control the flow of pulses to the drum. The other input to the gate 99 is from a translator unit, Fig. 12c, controlled in part by the card feed mechanism and in part by timing pulses from the drum, which continually produces two differentially timed pulses within each digit period representative in the biquinary code of the value of the holes being sensed by the card reading brushes. The pulses that pass through the gate 99 are transferred via two bi-stable circuits 111, 112, to one of three record heads 130, and because of the delay introduced by the circuits 111 and 112 the pulses actually generated by the translator unit are slightly ahead of the time when they should occur so that they reach the recording head at the correct time. The three tracks on the drum each receive the contents of one card in succession under control of cams 120, 121, 122, synchronized with the card feeding mechanism, and while a card is being read into one track, the other two tracks can be read and the data therefrom processed by some device not shown. Immediately prior to the entry of data on the drum the selected track is cleared by an erase voltage produced by a cam 151. In a second embodiment each digit is recorded on the drum in parallel form, there being 7 parallel tracks one for each position of the 7 bit biquinary code, and each set of 7 tracks accommodates 50 words. Specifications 442,534, [Group VIII], 688,383, 710,554, [Group XL (c)], and 742,463 are referred to.