The IBM 711 was announced May 21, 1952. Located to the immediate right of the operator's station, the card reader was used to transfer information on IBM punched cards into the IBM 701 Data Processing System. It could read 150 cards a minute.
The card-feeding mechanism in the 711 was similar to that in the IBM 402 Accounting Machine and included two sets of reading brushes. Any 72 columns of the punched card could be selected through control panel wiring to read into 72 positions of Electrostatic Storage. The cards could be punched with any desirable code. Users had to provide a suitable program so that the particular code used on the card could be translated into the binary code used by the 701.
The 711, which rented for $200 a month, was withdrawn from marketing on November 23, 1956.