Some ballasts have a simple date stamp on the bottom or the end flanges like in the form M-YY like 3-77 or C-77 which is March 1977 in both cases while some like yours has a bunch of numbers and letters on the bottom representing the date code. I guess rjluna2 was asking for that code. Hope that helps to clear things a bit.
i DIDNT say it could run ALL wattages and Types..the Ballast HAS a list of lamp currents,wattage and lamp designations on it....i do not imply that it will run all of these wattages.
HO & VHO fluorescents run at constant current. All HO fluorescents run at 800mA and VHOs at 1500mA (unless I'm wrong), the voltage rises as the wattage is higher, that's most likely why the ballast can run several lenghts of VHO lamps.