Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!lll-lcc!mordor!sri-spam!ames!amdcad!sun!imagen!atari!portal!cup.portal.com!Isaac_K_Rabinovitch From: Isaac_K_Rabinovitch@cup.portal.com Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: Size of SysV "block" Message-ID: <518@cup.portal.com> Date: Thu, 16-Jul-87 14:24:26 EDT Article-I.D.: cup.518 Posted: Thu Jul 16 14:24:26 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 18-Jul-87 11:03:00 EDT References: <218@astra.necisa.oz> <142700010@tiger.UUCP> <23436@sun.uucp> Organization: The Portal System (TM) Lines: 14 XPortal-User-Id: 1.1001.1472 >> O.K., I'll byte. (oops, pun initially unintended.) A byte IS eight >> bits!!! > >Don't say that within earshot of any PDP-10 aficionados.... > Guy Harris > {ihnp4, decvax, seismo, decwrl, ...}!sun!guy > guy@sun.com No, the basic unit on a PDP 10 is not a "byte" it's a "word". "Word" was universal nomenclature for unit of data before IBM introduced the 360, the first byte-oriented machine. An old IBMer once told me that "byte" was a Olde English word meaning "syllable". Never been able to confirm this.