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From: M Douglas McIlroy <m.douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu>
To: Dave Horsfall <dave@horsfall.org>
Cc: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society <tuhs@tuhs.org>
Subject: Re: [TUHS] reviving a bit of WWB
Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2021 17:55:08 -0500	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <CAKH6PiXpqYJBXmozwNab6akLh3tvh9AmjpmV99X1Yf7nkojT1Q@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <alpine.BSF.2.21.9999.2102040916500.70858@aneurin.horsfall.org>

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>> Whirlwind II (built in 1952), was 16 bits. It took a long while for that
>> to become common wisdom.

> Now that goes back...

Yup. Before my time.  I didn't get to use it until 1954.

Doug

On Wed, Feb 3, 2021 at 5:19 PM Dave Horsfall <dave@horsfall.org> wrote:

> On Tue, 2 Feb 2021, M Douglas McIlroy wrote:
>
> > > I'm trying to get my head around a 10-bit machine optimised for C.
> >
> > How about 23-bits? That was one of the early ESS machines, evidently
> > optimized to make every bit count. (Maybe a prime wordwidth helps with
> > hashing?)
>
> 23 bits?  I think I'm about to throw up...  Yeah, being prime I suppose it
> would help with hashing (and other crypto stuff).
>
> > Whirlwind II (built in 1952), was 16 bits. It took a long while for that
> > to become common wisdom.
>
> Now that goes back...
>
> -- Dave
>

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  reply	other threads:[~2021-02-03 22:55 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 60+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2020-09-19  1:51 Doug McIlroy
2020-09-20 18:42 ` arnold
2020-09-20 19:28   ` Will Senn
2020-09-20 20:12     ` Steve Nickolas
2020-09-20 20:26       ` Doug McIlroy
2020-09-20 20:57         ` Doug McIlroy
2020-09-20 22:13           ` Clem Cole
2020-09-21 20:43             ` Steffen Nurpmeso
2020-09-20 20:58         ` Steve Nickolas
2020-09-20 21:33           ` Brantley Coile
2020-10-07  5:43             ` scj
2020-09-20 21:35           ` John Cowan
2021-02-02 23:08             ` Greg A. Woods
2021-02-02 23:47               ` Larry McVoy
2021-02-03  0:11                 ` Dave Horsfall
2021-02-03  0:19                   ` Larry McVoy
2021-02-03  2:04                     ` Richard Salz
2021-02-03  3:32                       ` Dave Horsfall
2021-02-03  4:32                         ` M Douglas McIlroy
2021-02-03 11:27                           ` Peter Jeremy via TUHS
2021-02-03 20:09                             ` Dave Horsfall
2021-02-03 20:13                               ` Niklas Karlsson
2021-02-03 23:46                               ` Tom Lyon
2021-02-03 22:19                           ` Dave Horsfall
2021-02-03 22:55                             ` M Douglas McIlroy [this message]
2020-09-20 22:15           ` Clem Cole
2020-09-20 22:47             ` John Cowan
2020-09-21 20:48               ` Steffen Nurpmeso
2020-09-21 20:46           ` Steffen Nurpmeso
2020-09-24  2:25       ` Dave Horsfall
2020-09-24  2:33         ` Clem Cole
2020-09-25  0:18           ` [TUHS] One's complement (was: reviving a bit of WWB) Greg 'groggy' Lehey
2020-09-25  0:22             ` Warner Losh
2020-09-25  1:39               ` John Cowan
2020-09-27  5:54           ` [TUHS] reviving a bit of WWB Dave Horsfall
2020-09-24 17:19         ` Paul Winalski
2020-09-24 18:17           ` John Cowan
2020-10-07  5:47   ` scj
2020-10-07  9:20     ` arnold
2020-10-08  0:27     ` Dave Horsfall
2020-10-08  3:08       ` John Cowan
2020-09-20 22:51 Norman Wilson
2020-09-20 23:00 Norman Wilson
2020-09-20 23:53 ` Clem Cole
2020-09-21  0:00   ` Clem Cole
2020-09-21  2:24     ` John Cowan
2020-09-21  0:09   ` Warner Losh
2020-09-21  1:05     ` Clem Cole
2020-09-21  5:55     ` Steve Nickolas
2020-09-21  5:59       ` Warner Losh
2020-09-21 18:40         ` Paul Winalski
2020-09-21 19:56           ` Dan Cross
2020-09-21 20:50       ` John Cowan
2020-09-21 21:22         ` Rob Pike
2020-09-21 21:57           ` Clem Cole
2020-09-21 23:56             ` John Cowan
2020-09-22  0:54               ` Richard Salz
2020-09-21 21:39         ` Steve Nickolas
2020-09-25 14:19 Doug McIlroy
2020-09-28 17:35 ` Angelo Papenhoff

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