does any read punch cards anymore?

[Paul Koning]

>>>>> "Brad" == Brad Parker <brad at heeltoe.com> writes:

 Brad> Remember punchcards?

 Brad> Does anyone read them these days?

I think I've heard of at least one of the serious retrocomputors who
has a card reader.

 Brad> Someone approached me with some tapes to read and they also had
 Brad> 2 boxes of cards.

 Brad> I remember a nifty desktop card reader attached to a PDP-8/L
 Brad> once.  I never used it but it sure seems like it would be
 Brad> easy/fun to wire it up to something more modern.

There were several types of card readers for the PDP-11.  One is quite
small, fairly slow -- the CR11.  The other is somewhat bigger (either
a tabletop model or a freestanding unit, depending on hopper size) and
comparable in speed to mainframe readers -- the CD11.  Either one
would do very nicely if you happen to have a PDP11 around.  (Or a VAX?
I think VMS had support for them.)

And of course there are some big machines around with card readers...
The folks at www.cray-cyber.org have one, judging by the photos,
though it isn't clear whether it is hooked up.

       paul