Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code
/eb's▫-dik/, /eb'see`dik/, /eb'k▫-dik/,
/ee`bik'dik`/, /▫-bik'dik`/ (EBCDIC) A {character set} used on
{IBM} {dinosaurs} and the {AS/400} and {e-Server}. It exists
in at least six mutually incompatible versions, all featuring
such delights as non-contiguous letter sequences and the
absence of serveral punctuation characters fairly important
for modern computer languages. IBM adapted EBCDIC from
{punched card} code early in the 1960s and promulgated it as a
customer control tactic (see {connector conspiracy}).
In one variant each character is represented by 5 bits and one
code (11111?) switches between character sets.
US EBCDIC used more or less the same characters as {ASCII},
but used different {code points}. Some ASCII characters did
not exist in EBCDIC (e.g. {square brackets}) and EBCDIC had
some ({cent sign}, {not sign}) that were not in ASCII. As a
consequence, the translation between ASCII and EBCDIC was
strictly speaking undefined, and IBM never officially defined
a complete one. Users defined one translation which resulted
in a so-called de-facto EBCDIC containing all the characters
of ASCII, that all ASCII-related programs use.
Some printers, telex machines, and even electronic cash
registers can speak EBCDIC, but only so they can converse with
IBM mainframes.
For an in-depth discussion of character code sets, and full
translation tables, see {Guidelines on 8-bit character codes
(ftp://ftp.ulg.ac.be/pub/docs/iso8859/iso8859.networking)}.
Here is a simple translation table:
Least significant nibble ->
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
0 ... controls ...
1
2
3 ... controls ...
4 � � � � � � � � � . < ( : |
5 & � � � � � � � � � ! $ ▫ ) ; ^
6 - / � � � � � � � � � , % _ > ?
7 � � � � � � � � � ` : # ◊ ' ◦ "
8 � a b c d e f g h i � � � � � �
9 � j k l m n o p q r � � � � � �
A � ~ s t u v w x y z � � � [ � �
B � � � � � � � � � � � � � ] � �
C { A B C D E F G H I � � � � �
D } J K L M N O P Q R � � � � � �
E \ � S T U V W X Y Z � � � � � �
F 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 � � � � �
E.g. the EBCDIC code for "A" is {hexadecimal} "C1".
(1999-07-06)