Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!esosun!net1!sdcsvax!hp-sdd!ncr-sd!ncrcae!sauron!campbell From: campbell@sauron.UUCP (Mark Campbell) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: what's a word Message-ID: <795@sauron.UUCP> Date: Fri, 19-Dec-86 09:53:07 EST Article-I.D.: sauron.795 Posted: Fri Dec 19 09:53:07 1986 Date-Received: Sat, 20-Dec-86 08:36:12 EST References: <112@bnr-vpa.UUCP> <9200002@rmi.UUCP> <193@drilex.UUCP> <7426@utzoo.UUCP> Reply-To: campbell@sauron.UUCP (Mark Campbell) Organization: NCR Corp., Advanced System Development, Columbia, SC Lines: 21 In article <7426@utzoo.UUCP> henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) writes: >> A word is the 'natural' unit of operations on a machine. >> (Which means that 32 bits on a vax should really be called a word, not >> a longword.) > >The only reason it's called a longword is because of all the semi-subliminal >it's-really-just-a-big-pdp11-so-don't-worry-about-incompatibility marketing >horseshit that surrounded the vax in its early days. Remember when a 780's >official designation was a "VAX-11/780"? >-- > Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology > {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry [For what it's worth...] A DEC field representitive in the late 70's told me that the reason that the VAX word was 16 bits was that the Government classified machines by word size when purchasing -- thus the VAX would have competed with a higher class of machines in contracts. -- Mark Campbell {}!ncsu!ncrcae!sauron!campbell