Open Use Other Datapunch Card

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DATAPUNCH CARD

AFFILIATION
Free use.

MANUFACTURER
Various.

TYPE
Data storage medium.
POWER SUPPLY
N/A.

SENSORS
N/A.

SIZE
Card-sized.

COMPOSITION
Shatterproof ceramic.

DESCRIPTION
Datapunch cards are a highly obsolete data storage medium, widely used in the pre-Republic era but rapidly supplanted by datatapes and conventional datacards once these technologies became available. Composed of shatterproof ceramic, datapunch cards are remarkably stable, able to store data in an incorruptible state for millennia.

Datapunch cards store data as a series of aligned reference points, microscopic metal pieces which are positioned magnetically during the write process, and then fixed in place when the card is fired and hardened; blank datapunch cards come in a "soft" state, stored in a rigid hard wax caddy which burns off during the firing process. Sequences of information are denoted by perforations in the card, acting as guides for the x-ray head of a standard datapunch reader. Due to the nature of the recording, datapunch cards are a "write once, read many" format, unable to be edited or otherwise altered once recorded on. The largest datapunch cards have a 3 exanode capacity, compared to the 512 exanode capacity of modern datatape cartridges. Due to their low capacity, large files are usually split across a set of individual datapunch cards meant to be read in sequence, called a "deck".

Datapunch cards are almost extinct in modern usage, although they are sometimes employed by long-term archival services due to their stability; they are also used on some of the Galaxy's more technologically backward planets. The format is highly prized by researchers and archaeologists, however, and information stored on datapunch cards can often give us a window into the distant past.

LEGALITY
Legal. Though obsolete, datapunch cards are unrestricted throughout most of the Galaxy.

INTENT
To create an obsolete data storage format, essentially a combination of real-life computer punch cards and ancient clay tablets.

 
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