The committee decided it was important to support uppercase 64-character alphabets, and chose to pattern ASCII so it could be reduced easily to a usable 64-character set of graphic codes, as was done in the DEC SIXBIT code (1963).
ðə kəmˈɪɾi dᵻsˈaɪdᵻd ɪt wʌz ɪmpˈoːɹtənt tə səpˈoːɹt ˈʌpɚkˌeɪs sˈɪksti fˈoːɹkˈæɹɪktɚɹ ˈælfəbˌɛts, ænd tʃˈoʊz tə pˈætɚn ˈæski sˌoʊ ɪt kʊd biː ɹᵻdˈuːst ˈiːzili tʊ ɐ jˈuːzəbəl sˈɪksti fˈoːɹkˈæɹɪktɚ sˈɛt ʌv ɡɹˈæfɪk kˈoʊdz, æz wʌz dˈʌn ɪnðə dˌiːˌiːsˈiː sˈɪksbɪt kˈoʊd nˈaɪntiːnhˈʌndɹɪd sˈɪksti θɹˈiː.