A punched card is a piece of card stock that stores digital data using punched holes. Punched cards were once common in data processing and the control of automated machines.
A 12-row/80-column IBM punched card from the mid-twentieth century
Close-up of a Jacquard loom's chain, constructed using 8 × 26 hole punched cards
Carpet loom with Jacquard apparatus by Carl Engel, around 1860. Chain feed is on the left.
Woman operating the card puncher, c.1940
Data processing is the collection and manipulation of digital data to produce meaningful information. Data processing is a form of information processing, which is the modification (processing) of information in any manner detectable by an observer.
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