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.