Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code (EBCDIC) is an 8-bit character encoding (code page) used on IBM mainframe operating systems such as z/OS, OS/390, VM and VSE, as well as IBM minicomputer operating systems such as OS/400 and i5/OS (see also Binary Coded Decimal). It is also employed on various non-IBM platforms such as Fujitsu-Siemens' BS2000/OSD, HP MPE/iX, and Unisys MCP. It descended from punched cards and the corresponding six bit binary-coded decimal code that most of IBM's computer peripherals of the late 1950s and early 1960s used.

Source: Wikipedia