A punched card reader or just card reader is a computer input device used to read executable computer programs, source code, and data from punched cards. A card punch is an output device that punches holes in cards under computer control. Sometimes card readers were combined with card punches and, later, other devices to form multifunction machines.
Most early computers, such as the ENIAC, and the IBM NORC, provided for punched card input/output.[1] Card readers and punches, either connected to computers or in off-line card to/from magnetic tape configurations, were ubiquitous through the mid-1970s.