What is EBCDIC?
| Extended Binary-Coded Decimal Interchange Code |
|
A group of coded character sets used on mainframes that consist of 8-bit coded characters. EBCDIC coded character sets reserve the first 64 code positions (x00 to x3F) for control codes, and reserve the range x41 to xFE for graphic characters. The English alphabetic characters are in discontinuous segments with uppercase at xC1 to xC9, xD1 to xD9, xE2 to xE9, and lowercase at x81 to x89, x91 to x99, xA2 to xA9. The 8-bit character set made popular by the IBM/360. Multics used ASCII for all its internal data, but read and wrote EBCDIC data to punch cards, tape, and some external devices such as IBM 2780s. Mapping between EBCDIC and ASCII was mostly straightforward, except for a few characters: for example, EBCDIC lacked caret, so its "hooked overline" character was substituted. EBCDIC takes up eight bits, which are divided in two pieces. The first four bits are called the "zone" and represent the catagory of the character, whereas the last four bits are the called the "digit" and identify the specific character. There are a number of different versions of EBCDIC, customised for different countries. |
Beginner's Help
BUG Club Home
