Six-bit character code: Difference between revisions

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A six-bit code, with added odd [[parity bit]], is used on Track 1 of [[magnetic stripe card]]s, as specified in [[ISO/IEC 7811]]-2.
 
===DEC SIXBIT code<span class="anchor" id="DEC six-bit code"></span>===
A popular six-bit code was [[Digital Equipment Corporation|DEC]] SIXBIT. This is simply the ASCII character codes from 32 to 95 coded as 0 to 63 by subtracting 32 (i.e., columns 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the ASCII table (16 characters to a column), shifted to columns 0 through 3, by subtracting 2 from the high bits); it includes the space, punctuation characters, numbers, and capital letters, but no control characters. Since it included no control characters, not even end-of-line, it was not used for general text processing. However, six-character names such as [[filename]]s and [[assembly language|assembler]] [[identifier|symbol]]s could be stored in a single [[36-bit]] word of [[PDP-10]], and three characters fit in each word of the [[PDP-1]] and two characters fit in each word of the [[PDP-8]]. See [[#ASCII-variants|table below]].