The IBM 550 numerical interpreter was the first commercial machine made by IBM that read numerical data punched on cards

Punched card

A punched card, punch card, IBM card, or Hollerith card is a piece of stiff paper that contains digital information represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions...

 and printed it across the top of each card. The 550 was introduced in 1930.

Information to be printed could be placed in any sequence via plugboard

Plugboard

A plugboard, or control panel , is an array of jacks, or hubs, into which patch cords can be inserted to complete an electrical circuit. Control panels were used to direct the operation of some unit record equipment...

 control panel selections. The machine operated at the rate of 75 cards a minute. The feed hopper had a capacity of 800 cards, and the stacker had a capacity of 1,000 cards.

Alphabetic and numberic characters could be printed by the Type 552 alphabetic interpreter, announced in 1937. It could process 60 cards per minute. The Type 552 was withdrawn in December 1957.

See also

• Unit record equipment
  Unit record equipment
  Before the advent of electronic computers, data processing was performed using electromechanical devices called unit record equipment, electric accounting machines or tabulating machines. Unit record machines were as ubiquitous in industry and government in the first half of the twentieth century...
  
  
• IBM 557
  IBM 557
  The IBM 557 Alphabetic Interpreter allowed holes in punched cards to be interpreted and the Hollerith punched card characters printed on any row or column, selected by a plugboard control panel. The machine was a synchronous system where brushes would glide over a hole in a punched card and...
  
  Alphabetic Interpreter