>> 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
>