One card from a database capable of handling 10,000 unique items (the number of locations available to drill holes). The number of attributes is limited only by the number of cards. This particular database has thousands of attributes.

The Termatrex system was invented by Frederick Jonker, who started out as an assistant professor of engineering at the University of Delaware. The selling point was that the system was inexpensive and simple enough for customers who had relatively small amounts of data to manage. A small number of systems were sold, but computers were just emerging as the way to manage information. According to Jonker, the company was exploring ways to handle much larger amounts of data automatically, but the company went bankrupt in 1969 (Management and Business 1960, 19–25).

The Smithsonian Institution bought a system in 1969 for use in its Conservation Analytical Laboratory. It remained in use there until 1986 (Smithsonian 2025).