UNIVAC® 1100 Series FIELDATA Code
CPU 80 Column Military
(octal) Char Punch Card FIELDATA
00 @ 7-8 MS: Master Space
01 [ 12-5-8 UC: Upper Case
02 ] 11-5-8 LC: Lower Case
03 # 12-7-8 LF: Line Feed
04 Δ 11-7-8 CR: Carriage Return
05 (blank) SP: Space
06 A 12-1
07 B 12-2
10 C 12-3
11 D 12-4
12 E 12-5
13 F 12-6
14 G 12-7
15 H 12-8
16 I 12-9
17 J 11-1
20 K 11-2
21 L 11-3
22 M 11-4
23 N 11-5
24 O 11-6
25 P 11-7
26 Q 11-8
27 R 11-9
30 S 0-2
31 T 0-3
32 U 0-4
33 V 0-5
34 W 0-6
35 X 0-7
36 Y 0-8
37 Z 0-9
40 ) 12-4-8
41 - 11
42 + 12
43 < 12-6-8
44 = 3-8
45 > 6-8
46 & 2-8
47 $ 11-3-8
50 * 11-4-8
51 ( 0-4-8
52 % 0-5-8
53 : 5-8
54 ? 12-0
55 ! 11-0
56 , 0-3-8
57 \ 0-6-8 STOP: Stop
60 0 0
61 1 1
62 2 2
63 3 3
64 4 4
65 5 5
66 6 6
67 7 7
70 8 8
71 9 9
72 ' 4-8
73 ; 11-6-8
74 / 0-1
75 . 12-3-8
76 ¤ 0-7-8 SPEC: Special
77 ≠ 0-2-8 IDLE: Idle
Notes
- FIELDATA was developed by the United States Army as a
character code for military communications. Three revisions
of MIL-STD-188 appeared over the years from 1958
through 1969 [1–3]. FIELDATA was defined as a 7-bit, 128
character code with the first 64 characters reserved for control
codes (which varied among the different versions of the
standard). UNIVAC used the second half of the FIELDATA code,
which contained all the graphic characters and simple teletype
control codes, as the character set for the UNIVAC 1107 and
later machines.
- The punch card codes given corresponded, in cases where FIELDATA
and the keyboard of the manual card punch (keypunch) overlapped,
to the IBM 026 vacuum tube keypunch. The later IBM 029 keypunch
assigned different hole patterns to some of the punctuation marks,
consistent with the EBCDIC code of the IBM System/360. Many
UNIVAC systems were later modified to accept the IBM 029 hole
patterns as an option, translating them into codes for the corresponding
FIELDATA characters.
- The codes defined as carriage control (CR, LF, etc.) in MIL-STD-188
but assigned graphics in the UNIVAC variant of FIELDATA behaved
differently depending on the device to which they were sent. UNIVAC
1107 and 1108 consoles incorporating a FIELDATA Teletype 35 printer
used the FIELDATA CR and LF codes for the intended purpose and printed
a stop sign for the “STOP” code (057 octal). On the UNIVAC 1108
display console (Type 4009, based on a UNISCOPE 300), there were
discrepancies among the keyboard symbols, what appeared on the
display screen, and the output of the PAGEWRITER printer. Some
UNIVAC line printers terminated output of a given line at the
first IDLE (077 octal) character while others, including the UNIVAC
1004 card reader/printer, printed it as a not-equal sign,
“≠” and printed
subsequent characters on a line. Imagine how much fun these little
discrepancies caused when moving programs from machine to machine, or
when a site installed a new piece of hardware.
- In the original specification of the Computer Sciences Corporation
1107 Monitor System, which was eventually adopted by Univac as
EXEC II, the FIELDATA “Master Space” (octal 0) code was used in
card input streams to distinguish command and data cards. In
their manuals, CSC and later Univac used the
“▽” character, an
inverted Greek capital delta, to signify the Master Space.
Noting the resemblance of this graphic to the Delta printed for
character code 4 by the UNIVAC 1004 some sites, including Case
Institute of Technology and Chi Corporation, swapped the printer
codes so that CPU code 00 printed as
“Δ” and code 04 as “@”.
The card reader codes remained the same; a 7-8 punch in column 1
signified a “control card”.
- In the 1970's, UNIVAC adopted ASCII as the
standard and transitioned their software, for the most part,
to that 8-bit code. Still, years later, if you looked
hard enough you could find little bits of FIELDATA lurking
all over even the most modern 1100 system.
- UNIVAC has been, over the years, a registered trademark of
Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, Remington Rand
Corporation, Sperry Rand Corporation, Sperry Corporation,
and Unisys Corporation.
FASTRAND is a trademark of Sperry Rand Corporation, since merged into
Unisys Corporation.
References
- Military Communication System Technical Standard,
MIL-STD-188A, 1958 April 25.
- Military Communication System Technical Standard,
MIL-STD-188B, 1964 February 24.
- Military Communication System Technical Standard,
MIL-STD-188C, 1969 November 24.
- Sperry Rand Corporation, UNIVAC 1107 Central Computer,
UP-2463 Rev. 2. No date; this manual was obtained in 1967.
- Sperry Rand Corporation, UNIVAC 1108 Processor and Storage,
UP-4053 Rev. 1, 1966, 1970.
- Mackenzie, Charles E., Coded Character Sets, History
and Development, Addison-Wesley, 1980.
Compiled by John Walker
August 6, 1996