Data conversion system

Claim 1

APPARATUS FOR TRANSLATING CODED INFORMATION FROM A DIGITAL COMPUTER HAVING AN OUTPUT SHIFTING REGISTER ON WHICH COMPUTER WORDS ARE STORED TO A CARD PUNCH MACHINE IN WHICH THE PUNCHES ARE INSERTED IN HORIZONTAL ROWS AND VERTICAL COLUMNS ON THE CARD, SAID APPARATUS COMPRISING A BUFFER MAGNETIC STORAGE DRUM HAVING CLOCK PULSES RECORDED THEREON FOR DIVIDING THE DRUM PERIPHERY INTO A PREDETERMINED NUMBER OF INFORMATION STORAGE POSITIONS, THE BUFFER DRUM FURTHER HAVING RECORDED THEREON AT LEAST ONE FORMAT CONTROL BAND IN WHICH PREDETERMINED COMMANDS ARE RECORDED IN PULSE FORM FOR EACH OF THE INFORMATION POSITIONS, MEANS FOR TRANSFERRING IN SEQUENCE THE DIGIT PULSE INFORMATION IN THE OUTPUT SHIFTING REGISTER TO THE BUFFER STORAGE DRUM INCLUDING MEANS RESPONSIVE TO THE FORMAT COMMANDS RECORDED IN THE FORMAT BAND FOR GATING CLOCK PULSES FROM THE BUFFER DRUM TO THE SHIFTING INPUT OF THE SHIFTING REGISTER IN THE COMPUTER OUTPUT, WHEREBY THE DIGITS ARE ONLY TRANSFERRED TO THE DRUM AT TIMES CORRESPONDING TO SELECTED ONES OF THE INFORMATION POSITIONS AROUND THE DRUM AS DETERMINED BY THE ASSOCIATED FORMAT COMMAND, MEANS FOR PUNCHING THE PUNCH CARD IN SELECTED COLUMNS A ROW AT A TIME, MEANS INCLUDING A STORAGE REGISTER COUPLED IN PARALLEL TO THE PUNCHING MEANS FOR ACTIVATING SELECTED PUNCHES ACCORDING TO THE PATTERN STORED ON THE STORAGE REGISTER, COMPARISON MEANS RESPONSIVE TO THE ROW TO BE PUNCHED AND THE SUCCESSIVE DIGITS FROM THE BUFFER DRUM, THE COMPARISON MEANS BEING CONNECTED TO THE STORAGE REGISTER FOR GENERATING AN INPUT PULSE TO THE STORAGE REGISTER WHENEVER A PREDETERMINED COMPARISON RELATION EXISTS, MEANS FOR SHIFTING THE STORAGE REGISTER, WHEREBY THE PATTERN OF PULSES GENERATED BY THE COMPARISON MEANS IS SHIFTED SERIALLY IN THE STORAGE REGISTER AND MEANS FOR COUPLING CLOCK PULSES TO THE MEANS FOR SHIFTING THE STORAGE REGISTER, SAID COUPLING MEANS INCLUDING GATING MEANS RESPONSIVE TO FORMAT COMMANDS RECORDED ON THE FORMAT BAND OF THE BUFFER DRUM, WHEREBY THE STORAGE REGISTER IS SHIFTED AT TIMES CORRESPONDING TO SELECTED ONES OF THE INFORMATION POSITIONS ON THE BUFFER DRUM AS DETERMINED BY THE ASSOCIATED FORMAT COMMANDS.