[TUHS] Re: Does anybody know the etymology of the term "word" as in collection of bits?

[Dan Halbert <halbert@halwitz.org>]

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On 9/8/22 12:51, Jon Steinhart wrote:
> One of those questions for which there is no search engine incantation.
>
> Jon

The famous 1946 paper, "Preliminary discussion of the logical design of 
an electronic computing device",  by Arthur Burks,  Herman H. Goldstine, 
John von Neumann, contains this sentence. I have this paper in Computer 
Structures: Readings and Examples, by Bell and Newell, but it's also 
online in many forms

**

    *

    4. The memory organ

    * 4.1. Ideally one would desire an indefinitely large memory
    capacity such that any particular aggregate of 40 binary digits, or
    /word /(cf. 2.3), would be immediately available-i.e. in a time
    which is somewhat or considerably shorter than the operation time of
    a fast electronic multiplier.

I also looked in the Oxford English Dictionary for etymology. It has:

    *d.* /Computing/. A consecutive string of bits (now typically 16,
    32, or 64, but formerly fewer) that can be transferred and stored as
    a unit./machine word/: see /machine word/ n. at machine n. Compounds
    2 <https://www-oed-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/view/Entry/111850#eid38480019>.

    1946 H. H. Goldstine & J. Von Neumann in J. von Neumann /Coll. Wks./
    (1963) V. 28   In ‘writing’ a word into the memory, it is similarly
    not only the time effectively consumed in ‘writing’ which matters,
    but also the time needed to ‘find’ the specified location in the memory.

    [plus newer citations]

Dan H



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