This list provides an inventory of character coding standards mainly before modern standards like ISO/IEC 646 etc. Some of these standards have been deeply involved in historic events that still have consequences. One notable example of this is the ITA2 coding used during World War II (1939–1945). The nature of these standards is not as common knowledge like it is for ASCII or EBCDIC or their slang names. While 8-bit is the de facto standard as of 2016,[citation needed] in the past 5-bit and 6-bit were more prevalent or their multiple.

Code Introduction Width Usage
Morse code c. 1837–1840 varies Electrical telegraphs
Baudot code / ITA1 1870 5 bits Piano-like telegraph operation, SIGCUM cipher operation
Chinese telegraph code 1881 4 digits Chinese telegraph communications
Murray code 1901 5 bits Machine run telegraph operation using punched paper, moved optimization from minimal operator fatigue to minimal machinery wear
ITA2 1924[1] 5 bits Teletypewrite, Telecommunications devices for the deaf (TDD), Telex, Amateur radio, Radioteletype (RTTY), Financial info by Deutsche Börse,[2] Enigma machine and T52 during WWII
BCDIC 1928 6 bits Introduced with the IBM card
FIELDATA 1956[citation needed] 6/7 bits Battlefield information (USA)
CDC display code 1963 6 bits Control Data Corporation computers
DEC SIXBIT/ECMA-1 1963 6 bits Digital Equipment
EBCDIC 1963 8 bits IBM computers
ASCII 1963-06-17 (ASA X3.4-1963)[3][4][5][6] 7 bits Teleprinters and computers; original definition of ASCII
GOST 10859 1964 4/5/6/7 bits Soviet Union
ECMA-6 1965-04-30 7 bits ASCII localization
ISO 646 1967 (ISO/R646-1967)[3] 7 bits ASCII localization
ASCII 1967 (USAS X3.4-1967)[3][7][6] 7 bits Close to "modern" definition of ASCII
Transcode 1967 7 bits IBM data transmission terminal 2780, 3780
Recommendation V.3 IA5 1968 7 bits
MARC-8 1968 7 bits Library computer systems
Braille ASCII 1969 6/7 bits Tactile print for blind persons
JIS X 0201 1969 6/7 bits First Japanese electronic character set
ECMA-48 1972 7 bits Terminal text manipulation and colors
ISO/IEC 8859 1987 8 bits International codes
ISO/IEC 10646 (Unicode) 1991 21 bits usable, packed into 8/16/32-bit code units Unified encoding for most of the world's writing systems. When introduced in 1991 then only 16-bit (extension to 21-bit came later).
KPS 9566 1993 North Korean 2-byte character code set

See also

References

  1. ^ "BruXy: Radio Teletype communication". 2005-10-10. Retrieved 2016-05-09. The transmitted code use International Telegraph Alphabet No. 2 (ITA-2) which was introduced by CCITT in 1924.
  2. ^ "Enhanced Broadcast Solution – Interface Specification Final Version" (PDF). Deutsche Börse. 2010-05-17. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
  3. ^ a b c Mackenzie, Charles E. (1980). Coded Character Sets, History and Development (1 ed.). Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc. ISBN 0-201-14460-3. LCCN 77-90165. ((cite book)): |work= ignored (help) [1]
  4. ^ "American Standard Code for Information Interchange, ASA X3.4-1963". American Standards Association (ASA). 1963-06-17. Archived from the original on 2016-05-26. Retrieved 2014-05-23.
  5. ^ Winter, Dik T. (2010) [2003]. "US and International standards: ASCII". Archived from the original on 2010-01-16.
  6. ^ a b Salste, Tuomas (January 2016). "7-bit character sets: Revisions of ASCII". Aivosto Oy. urn:nbn:fi-fe201201011004. Archived from the original on 2016-06-13. Retrieved 2016-06-13.
  7. ^ "USA Standard Code for Information Interchange, USAS X3.4-1967". United States of America Standards Institute (USASI). July 7, 1967. ((cite journal)): Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

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