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EBCDIC


Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code (EBCDIC) is an eight-bit character encoding used mainly on IBM mainframe and IBM midrange computer operating systems. EBCDIC descended from the code used with punched cards and the corresponding six bit binary-coded decimal code used with most of IBM's computer peripherals of the late 1950s and early 1960s. It is also supported on various non-IBM platforms such as Fujitsu-Siemens' BS2000/OSD, OS-IV, MSP, and MSP-EX, the SDS Sigma series, and Unisys VS/9 and MCP.

EBCDIC /ˈɛbsdɪk/ was devised in 1963 and 1964 by IBM and was announced with the release of the IBM System/360 line of mainframe computers. It is an eight-bit character encoding, developed separately from the 7-bit ASCII encoding scheme. It was created to extend the existing Binary-Coded Decimal (BCD) Interchange Code, or BCDIC, which itself was devised as an efficient means of encoding the two zone and number punches on punched cards into 6 bits.


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