A punch-card machine that performs any arithmetical or logical operation at high speed and may perform a dozen such operations in sequence during the time that a punch card passes through the machine.
A punch-card machine that uses loops of punched paper tape, which express either a sequence of values in a table that the machine can consult or a sequence of instructions that govern the operations of the machine.
Punch-card machinery that uses a larger card than the 80-column card.
A punch-card machine that may have a fairly large amount of internal memory, perhaps 30 or 40 registers where numbers or words may be stored and referred to.
SPEED
The speed of various operations with present IBM punch-card machines is about as shown in the table.
| Machine | Operation | Time in Seconds |
|---|---|---|
| Key punch | Punch 80 columns | About 20 to 40 |
| Verifier | Check 80 columns | About 20 to 40 |
| Sorter | Sort 1 card on 1 column | 0.15 |
| Interpreter | Print 1 line | 0.8 |
| Reproducer | Reproduce a card, all 80 columns | 0.6 |
| Collator | Merge 2 cards | 0.25 |
| Multiplying punch | Multiply by 8 digits | 5.6 |
| Calculating punch | Add | 0.3 |
| Calculating punch | Multiply by 8 digits | 3.6 |
| Calculating punch | Divide, obtaining 8 quotient digits | 9.0 |
| Tabulator | Print 1 line, numbers only | 0.4 |
| Tabulator | Print 1 line, letters included | 0.75 |
| Tabulator | Add numbers from 1 card | 0.4 |
COST
Punch-card machines may be either rented or purchased from some manufacturers but only rented from others. If we take the cost of a clerk as $120 to $150 a month, the monthly rent of most punch-card machines ranges from ⅒ of the cost of a clerk for the simplest type of machine, such as a key punch, to 3 times the cost of a clerk for a complicated and versatile type of machine, such as a tabulator with many attachments. The rental basis is naturally convenient for many kinds of jobs.