Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!rutgers!sri-spam!ames!ptsfa!ihnp4!inuxc!iuvax!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uiucdcsb!robison From: robison@uiucdcsb.cs.uiuc.edu Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: *Why* do modern machines mostly hav Message-ID: <165100011@uiucdcsb> Date: Sat, 25-Jul-87 21:05:00 EDT Article-I.D.: uiucdcsb.165100011 Posted: Sat Jul 25 21:05:00 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 26-Jul-87 20:47:31 EDT References: <2807@phri.UUCP> Lines: 10 Nf-ID: #R:phri.UUCP:2807:uiucdcsb:165100011:000:495 Nf-From: uiucdcsb.cs.uiuc.edu!robison Jul 25 20:05:00 1987 Actually the Burroughs machines have a 51-bit word, 48 bits + a three bit tag. The real tragedy is that their ALGOL does not support packed record structures, so the programmers (including myself) have to specify how to pack information into words. All that ``high-level'' ALGOL is unfortunately very dependent upon a 48-bit word-size and thus extremely non-portable. In my experience with the Burroughs systems and many C boxes, a well written C program is less machine dependent! - Arch