Abstract: A card reader is disclosed for reading cards and like materials one at a time, the card reader having a transport mechanism and special control circuitry for control of same so as to provide single feed card transport over a predetermined transport cycle. The reader controls provide means for selecting the amount of data to be read from the transported card and for controlling the transport cycle in accordance with the selected portion of the card which is to be read. The reader of this invention is suitably a subcombination of an addressable system comprising a plurality of like devices which are addressably controlled by a central processing unit.

Abstract: A card reader system providing for a plurality of card reader units to be interfaced commonly to a single central processing unit, each card reader unit having an interface assembly wholly contained within the card reader electronics package and providing for Hollerith to ASCII conversion, retransmission of card data as often as requested, and suppression of trailing zeros in the transmitted card data. Each interface assembly provides for the generation and transmission of status signals upon the occurrence of predetermined card reader conditions. Means are provided in each card reader for receiving address characters from the CPU whereby each respective card reader is selectively enabled or disenabled from communicating with the CPU depending upon whether or not it has been properly addressed.