* Re: [TUHS] v7 K&R C
@ 2020-05-18 13:58 Doug McIlroy
2020-05-19 3:24 ` [TUHS] IBM 7030 byte size (was: v7 K&R C) Greg 'groggy' Lehey
0 siblings, 1 reply; 2+ messages in thread
From: Doug McIlroy @ 2020-05-18 13:58 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: tuhs
> [A]lthough these days "byte" is synonymous with "8 bits", historically it
> meant "the number of bits needed to store a single character".
It depends upon what you mean by "historically". Originally "byte"
was coined to refer to 8 bit addressable units on the IBM 7030 "Stretch"
computer. The term was perpetuated for the 360 family of computers. Only
later did people begin to attribute the meaning to non-addressable
6- or 9-bit units on 36- and 18-bit machines.
Viewed over history, the latter usage was transient and colloquial.
Doug
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 2+ messages in thread
* [TUHS] IBM 7030 byte size (was: v7 K&R C)
2020-05-18 13:58 [TUHS] v7 K&R C Doug McIlroy
@ 2020-05-19 3:24 ` Greg 'groggy' Lehey
0 siblings, 0 replies; 2+ messages in thread
From: Greg 'groggy' Lehey @ 2020-05-19 3:24 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Doug McIlroy; +Cc: tuhs
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On Monday, 18 May 2020 at 9:58:26 -0400, Doug McIlroy wrote:
>> [A]lthough these days "byte" is synonymous with "8 bits", historically it
>> meant "the number of bits needed to store a single character".
>
> It depends upon what you mean by "historically". Originally "byte"
> was coined to refer to 8 bit addressable units on the IBM 7030
> "Stretch" computer.
It seems that even then it was of variable size. From G.R. Trimble,
"STRETCH," Computer Usage Communique, 1963,
(http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Computer_Usage_Company/cuc.communique_vol2no3.1963.102651922.pdf):
the words can be composed of "bytes" with from one to eight bits in
a byte.
There's more at https://people.cs.clemson.edu/~mark/stretch.html.
> The term was perpetuated for the 360 family of computers. Only
> later did people begin to attribute the meaning to non-addressable
> 6- or 9-bit units on 36- and 18-bit machines.
>
> Viewed over history, the latter usage was transient and colloquial
Transient maybe, but UNIVAC used the term in its documentation of the
1100 series. The 1106/1108/1110 could access (but not directly
address) 6, 9 and 12 bit "bytes".
Greg
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2020-05-18 13:58 [TUHS] v7 K&R C Doug McIlroy
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