Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!uwvax!oddjob!gargoyle!ihnp4!alberta!calgary!radford From: radford@calgary.UUCP (Radford Neal) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards,comp.arch Subject: Re: *Why* do modern machines mostly have 8-bit bytes? Message-ID: <1037@vaxb.calgary.UUCP> Date: Mon, 27-Jul-87 18:40:03 EDT Article-I.D.: vaxb.1037 Posted: Mon Jul 27 18:40:03 1987 Date-Received: Wed, 29-Jul-87 00:52:58 EDT References: <142700010@tiger.UUCP> <2792@phri.UUCP> <8315@utzoo.UUCP> <3532@ihlpg.ATT.COM> Organization: U. of Calgary, Calgary, Ab. Lines: 14 Summary: 33 bit? How about 31 bit? Xref: mnetor comp.unix.wizards:3447 comp.arch:1712 In article <3532@ihlpg.ATT.COM>, ejbjr@ihlpg.ATT.COM (Branagan) writes: > Just some trivia on strange word sizes... > > Some time ago (very long ago in fact) I came across a machine called > an `ALWAC III'. It had 33 bit words!?? There was some logic in it > though - four 8 bit bytes and a sign bit (though the sign bit was in the > least significant position, and was 1 for positive, 0 for negative). > Just think how much worse things could be ... Yup. The LGP-30, of 1950's vintage, had 31 bit memory words. The accumulator had 32 bits, though. They seem to have thought of their memory as being 32-bit words, but the low-order bit was always zero... Radford Neal