from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code
EBCDIC
<character, standard> /eb's*-dik/, /eb'see`dik/, /eb'k*-dik/,
/ee`bik'dik`/, /*-bik'dik`/ (EBCDIC) A proprietary 8-bit
{character set} used on {IBM} {dinosaurs}, the {AS/400}, and
{e-Server}.
EBCDIC is an extension to 8 bits of BCDIC (Binary Coded
Decimal Interchange Code), an earlier 6-bit character set used
on IBM computers. EBCDIC was [first?] used on the successful
{System/360}, anounced on 1964-04-07, and survived for many
years despite the almost universal adoption of {ASCII}
elsewhere. Was this concern for {backward compatibility} or,
as many believe, a marketing strategy to lock in IBM
customers?
IBM created 57 national EBCDIC character sets and an
International Reference Version (IRV) based on {ISO 646} (and
hence ASCII compatible). Documentation on these was not
easily accessible making international exchange of data even
between IBM mainframes a tricky task.
US EBCDIC uses more or less the same characters as {ASCII},
but different {code points}. It has non-contiguous letter
sequences, some ASCII characters do not exist in EBCDIC
(e.g. {square brackets}), and EBCDIC has some ({cent sign},
{not sign}) not in ASCII. As a consequence, the translation
between ASCII and EBCDIC was never officially completely
defined. 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).
A history of character codes
(http://tronweb.super-nova.co.jp/characcodehist.html).
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 â ä à á ã å ç ñ ¢ . < ( + |
5 & é ê ë è í î ï ì ß ! $ * ) ; ^
6 - / Â Ä À Á Ã Å Ç Ñ ¦ , % _ > ?
7 ø É Ê Ë È Í Î Ï Ì ` : # @ ' = "
8 Ø a b c d e f g h i « » ð ý þ ±
9 ° j k l m n o p q r ª º æ ¸ Æ ¤
A µ ~ s t u v w x y z ¡ ¿ Ð [ Þ ®
B ¬ £ ¥ · © § ¶ ¼ ½ ¾ Ý ¨ ¯ ] ´ ×
C { A B C D E F G H I ô ö ò ó õ
D } J K L M N O P Q R ¹ û ü ù ú ÿ
E \ ÷ S T U V W X Y Z ² Ô Ö Ò Ó Õ
F 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ³ Û Ü Ù Ú
E.g. the EBCDIC code for "A" is {hexadecimal} "C1".
(2002-03-03)