Transcode (character encoding)

Six-Bit Transcode, or Six-Bit Transmission Code, was, for a few years, one of the three <a href="/facts/Character_encoding/ShJHIMoA">character sets</a> used by <a href="/facts/IBM/QszA7nwd">IBM</a> for <a href="/facts/Binary_Synchronous_Communications/D3HfJsHC">Binary Synchronous Communications</a>. Transmission using 6-bit Transcode had higher throughput than transmission using 8-bit EBCDIC or ASCII, provided that the data to be transmitted used a limited set of 48 characters.
The <a href="/facts/IBM_2780/MNGLQN9b">IBM 2780</a> data transmission terminal was announced with Transcode support in 1967. Its successor, the <a href="/facts/IBM_2780/MNGLQN9b">IBM 3780</a> <a href="/facts/Data_communication/1yAhaANd">data communication</a> terminal, announced in 1972, dropped Transcode support and added a "space compression" option.
Transcode is a <a href="/facts/Six-bit_character_code/98y42p1u">six-bit character code</a>. It relates to IBM's <a href="/facts/Punched_card_code/44WsPulQ">punched card code</a> but, like <a href="/facts/EBCDIC/qAhmvgj0">EBCDIC</a>, it is not <a href="/facts/BCD_(character_encoding)/5obwN7hT">BCD</a>. Its 64 values consist of the 26 uppercase letters, 10 numbers, 11 symbols, <a href="/facts/Space_(character)/0Um7Qfkq">space</a>, and 16 <a href="/facts/Control_character/jkWgHvfC">control characters</a>. Its 48 printable characters are ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789 .'-/@#$%&*⌑; it cannot represent ,:;!?"()[]<>+^=_\`{}|~. Characters are transmitted with <a href="/facts/Odd_parity/peFp3Wau">odd parity</a>. The 2780 cannot use the 16 control characters as data characters in Transcode mode.

Transcode (character encoding) open-in-new

Transcode (character encoding)