a piece of cardboard used in a former system of data storage and retrieval, produced by the International Business Machines Corporation, one of the largest computer manufacturers in the world. The information was stored in special codes consisting of various patterns of holes or notches punched in the card. The card could be fed into a machine which was able to read the pattern and thus retrieve the stored information.a type of paper card that may have information recorded on it by means of punched holes, and which may be read by a computer. IBM refers to International Business Machines Corporation, a US businessmachine and computer manufacturer.