Patent GB-1085495-A (GB)
Title: Card controller
IPC: G06F7/06
Filed: 1965-10-05
Abstract: 1,085,495. Sorting-machines. SPERRY RAND CORPORATION. Oct. 5, 1965 [Oct. 19, 1964], No. 42151/65. Heading G4M. General. The machine is capable of performing a sorting or collating operation on punched cards and has facilities for performing arithmetic or other operations on information read from the cards or supplied by auxiliary data processing apparatus. The machine includes two card read stations, two wait stations each of which stores two cards, a memory, an arithmetic unit, a comparator coupled to the arithmetic unit for performing comparisions between information items from the cards, and a plurality of card stackers controlled by the comparator and receiving cards from a transport mechanism coupled to the wait stations. Card feeding.-There are two input hoppers 111, 113, Fig. 3, for primary and secondary cards and the primary and secondary transport paths are basically similar. A card is fed from a hopper by a conventional picker knife arrangement, and then slides up a ramp (462), Fig. 4 (not shown), at the top of which the card snaps up into a horizontal position, thereby allowing the next card to be fed before the first card has been completely removed from the ramp. The cards are transported by rollers through the primary or secondary read station, into a wait station 351 or 357 and thence into primary stackers P1-P3, secondary stackers S1-S3 or a common stacker C. Card stackers.-The stacks of cards are built up horizontally. The movable wall of the stacker rests on wheels and a nylon belt which prevents heavy contact between the wheels and the track on which they run. As a card enters the stacker its kinetic energy is sufficient to move the movable wall. Wait stations.-Each wait station includes a drum 585, Fig. 6, which turns the cards from a horizontal to a vertical, on edge, attitude. A deflector 612 is actuated by a solenoid to direct successive cards alternately to either side of a central plate 588. The position of a foam rubber shock absorber 618 is manually adjustable to accommodate cards of differing lengths. Cards are ejected from the wait station, in the same order as they arrive, by means of a solenoid actuated picker knife. Detecting and clearing jams.-Jams are detected by means of photo-cells situated along the two transport paths, the machine being stopped when a jam occurs. The primary read station is also used in part of the jamdetecting system, a card leading edge being detected by the covering of certain read photocells and the trailing edge being detected by the uncovering of all the read photo-cells. To avoid an erroneous trailing edge signal being produced when a card column which has been punched in every position passes through the read station, the trailing edge signal is not produced until two columns after the uncovering of all the photo-cells. Cards are readily accessible for the clearing of a jam between the ready station and the wait station, and special arrangements are provided for giving access to cards in the transport path associated with the stackers. By rotating a handle, a frame holding the idler rollers is unlocked and a sliding bar having a plurality of ears is cammed to move the idler rollers out of engagement with the drive rollers by compressing their biasing springs. The mechanism can then be swung out about a hinge to give access to the transport path. Because the biasing springs on the idler rollers are compressed when opening up the mechanism, little force is required by the operator when restoring the idler rollers to the operative position. Timing of card through read station.-Passage of the leading edge of a card past the read photo-cells causes a signal to be recorded on a magnetic drum coupled to the card-feed mechanism. This signal passes a read head to produce a first sprocket pulse when the first card column is aligned with the photo-cells. The first sprocket pulse is fed to a second write head so that subsequent sprocket pulses are produced in synchronism with the passage of card columns through the read station. The sprocket pulses are inhibited when a card has left the read station or a jam is detected. Sensing.-As each column of a primary and secondary card is read at the respective read station, the outputs of the two stations are gated out alternately, Fig. 17 (not shown). A read order flip-flop is set by a signal from a plug board to enable the read circuits until the flip-flop is reset after all or a preselected number of columns have been read. After the end of a read order signal, any time remaining while the rest of the card passes through the read station may be used for a data processing operation. Characters in twelve row code are translated into machine code (modified excess 3) before use, but when a card is divided into two six row fields the two characters in each column may be used directly after being gated out in succession. Memory.-The machine memory comprises a magnetic core matrix which is addressable by means of row and column address counters and registers. An operand comprising several characters may be transferred to or from the memory in ascending or descending order by specifying the most and least significant character addresses and the order of transfer on the appropriate plug board hubs. Associated with the memory are two registers, C and D. The D register receives data from a card or the memory while the C register receives data to be written into the memory after coming from the arithmetic unit or from the D register prior to an arithmetic operation. Complementing of data being transferred from the D register to the C register may be performed if the following arithmetic operation is subtraction. Sorting operation.-This is performed in two passes and is controlled in part by a changeover switch. The cards are loaded into the primary hopper and numerical values 0, 2, 3 and 6 are entered in particular memory locations. In the first pass data from the cards is compared with 0, 3 and 6, cards providing an equal comparison with 0 are directed to common stacker C; cards equal to or less than 3 are directed to pocket P3 which thus accumulates 1, 2, and 3 cards; cards equal to or less than six are directed to stacker P2 which thus accumulates 4, 5, and 6 cards; and the remaining cards 7, 8, 9 and reject are directed to stacker P1. While the first pass is being performed, cards are removed from P3 and are loaded into the secondary hopper and the data read therefrom are compared with 2. Cards providing a comparision equal to 2 are directed to S2 which thus accumulates the 2 cards; cards less than 2, i.e. 1, are directed to S1, and cards greater than 2, i.e. 3, are directed to S3. The sorted cards are then removed from S1 to S3 and C these having been sorted (0-3) and the change-over switch is actuated. The cards (4-6) from P2 are loaded into the primary hopper while the cards (7-9 and reject) from P1 are loaded into the secondary hopper. During the second pass the primary cards are compared with 5 and are accordingly directed to P1-P3, and simultaneously the secondary cards are compared with 8 and 9 and are directed into S1-S3 and C (reject). Collating.-Operation of the stacker deflectors is controlled as a result of comparisons made between operands stored in selected memory locations. Matching primary and secondary cards are fed to the common stacker C, the primary card entering stacker C first because actuation of the ejector mechanism in the primary wait station is initiated by the card detection circuitry at the primary read station, whereas actuation of the ejector mechanism in the secondary wait station is initiated subsequently by a photo-cell 359 following the secondary read station. Non matching cards may also be directed to stacker C, non-equal comparisons controlling the feeding of primary or secondary cards. Alternatively, the non-equal comparison results may be used to direct non- matching cards to other primary or secondary stackers. Other operations.-Information may be entered from both readers into data-processing apparatus, and in this case it may not be desired to inter file primary and secondary cards in stacker C, so that if a card has not been previously directed into P1, P2 or S1, S2, it is automatically directed to P3 or S3. The system can accept data from auxiliary equipment while reading secondary cards and may transmit data to peripheral equipment when reading primary cards. Data transfer to and from peripheral equipment may take place simultaneously. In an editing operation an operand in the D register may have additional information inserted therein or removed therefrom whilst it is being transferred to the C register.