From the webpage:
Last month, Gene Amdahl, an IBM fellow who was the chief architect of the legendary IBM 360 system, died at age 92.
In memory of his work, this month’s challenge focuses on the IBM-360 character set (EBCDIC):
Find a formula to convert the 52 EBCDIC letters into ASCII using no more than 4 operators.
See IBM Knowledge Center for the ASCII and EBCDIC character sets.
Supply your answer as a mathematical expression. For example, one can switch from lower-case ASCII to uppercase ASCII (and vice versa) using a single operation: f(x)=x xor 32.
Update (09/12):
You can use any reasonable operation (even trigonometric functions).Update (13/12):
Use at most 4 operations, not 4 operations types. For example, the function x-floor((x>>4)*7.65-29), which correctly converts the upper case letters, uses five operation (2 subtractions, shift, multiplication, floor).
We will post the names of those who submit a correct, original solution! If you don’t want your name posted then please include such a statement in your submission!
We invite visitors to our website to submit an elegant solution. Send your submission to the ponder@il.ibm.com.
After you have exhausted arguing about religion, politics and sports teams, consider debating the best way to convert from EBCDIC to ASCII.
That should get your blood pumping!
Enjoy!