From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=DKIM_INVALID,DKIM_SIGNED, MAILING_LIST_MULTI,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 31582 invoked from network); 3 Feb 2021 11:28:43 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (45.79.103.53) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 3 Feb 2021 11:28:43 -0000 Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 3BF239C1DD; Wed, 3 Feb 2021 21:28:40 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AA23E9BA43; Wed, 3 Feb 2021 21:28:23 +1000 (AEST) Authentication-Results: minnie.tuhs.org; dkim=fail reason="signature verification failed" (2048-bit key; unprotected) header.d=rulingia.com header.i=@rulingia.com header.b="Ry6J8IHe"; dkim-atps=neutral Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id EE7A99BA43; Wed, 3 Feb 2021 21:28:21 +1000 (AEST) Received: from vtr.rulingia.com (vtr.rulingia.com [45.77.232.82]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 7D03E9BA40 for ; Wed, 3 Feb 2021 21:28:20 +1000 (AEST) Received: from server.rulingia.com (ppp239-208.static.internode.on.net [59.167.239.208]) by vtr.rulingia.com (8.16.1/8.15.2) with ESMTPS id 113BRlQw013371 (version=TLSv1.3 cipher=AEAD-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=OK); Wed, 3 Feb 2021 22:27:53 +1100 (AEDT) (envelope-from peter@rulingia.com) DKIM-Filter: OpenDKIM Filter v2.10.3 vtr.rulingia.com 113BRlQw013371 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/simple; d=rulingia.com; s=default; t=1612351673; bh=C3kJaiHinTQ5o5dEE7jZdgN0xz5AVHKzlC1v4119C1Q=; h=Date:From:To:Cc:Subject:References:In-Reply-To; b=Ry6J8IHeOwM36rts/roRs/Ej596XBlIZvfajOyWWzWH01lyIx9yrNPk4VvoahPgV2 4IWo7l11z0utokOMbn1YZkqJriH7TGRWnNUNEBcWUNTsJts1pxHGDPiQ27rbQVYIEQ 36akQ2PPQeafKq8sVTNxNLo+pcEeo61PT6fq2aHJzFzON3ZMY6CkY3UrSsXM7+OPit qKBGJ+3qTCDC9Tp99KPEYaP1TgCnsQTsMD6LfYtFKzD1TZRevDVd6izvbaAx6yFp5G lB26+KSSW9EDKjmKxyUd5bu3y6BK47lpTkTBzzQG1hEVo5h/gmvYK6NR9adrpLX8Lx s8mmd9cAQ+2eQ== X-Bogosity: Ham, spamicity=0.000000 Received: from server.rulingia.com (localhost.rulingia.com [127.0.0.1]) by server.rulingia.com (8.16.1/8.16.1) with ESMTPS id 113BRgVh035690 (version=TLSv1.3 cipher=AEAD-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=NO); Wed, 3 Feb 2021 22:27:42 +1100 (AEDT) (envelope-from peter@server.rulingia.com) Received: (from peter@localhost) by server.rulingia.com (8.16.1/8.16.1/Submit) id 113BRgha035689; Wed, 3 Feb 2021 22:27:42 +1100 (AEDT) (envelope-from peter) Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2021 22:27:42 +1100 To: M Douglas McIlroy Message-ID: References: <202009202026.08KKQ2x6137303@tahoe.cs.dartmouth.edu> <20210202234703.GH4227@mcvoy.com> <20210203001900.GI4227@mcvoy.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha512; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="+GZWvc9sQjvsPzXH" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: X-PGP-Key: http://www.rulingia.com/keys/peter.pgp Subject: Re: [TUHS] reviving a bit of WWB X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , From: Peter Jeremy via TUHS Reply-To: Peter Jeremy Cc: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" --+GZWvc9sQjvsPzXH Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On 2021-Feb-02 23:32:29 -0500, 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?) >Whirlwind II (built in 1952), was 16 bits. It took a long while for that >to become common wisdom. I'm not sure that 16 (or any other 2^n) bits is that obvious up front. Does anyone know why the computer industry wound up standardising on 8-bit bytes? Scientific computers were word-based and the number of bits in a word is more driven by the desired float range/precision. Commercial computers needed to support BCD numbers and typically 6-bit characters. ASCII (when it turned up) was 7 bits and so 8-bit characters wasted =E2=85=9B of the storage. Minis tended to have shorter word sizes to minim= ise the amount of hardware. --=20 Peter Jeremy --+GZWvc9sQjvsPzXH Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQKTBAEBCgB9FiEE7rKYbDBnHnTmXCJ+FqWXoOSiCzQFAmAaiKZfFIAAAAAALgAo aXNzdWVyLWZwckBub3RhdGlvbnMub3BlbnBncC5maWZ0aGhvcnNlbWFuLm5ldEVF QjI5ODZDMzA2NzFFNzRFNjVDMjI3RTE2QTU5N0EwRTRBMjBCMzQACgkQFqWXoOSi CzSROg/6A3i2WfPS6Pj4bwGu8QpOX/ULjx8NTFwK2FQyHMB7fORm1qmOjGGtdvxM OJLXYZV5StuON1XZSUGtrixwOnltyq3+q+gQH3EjMI8U6t0uEwCZZgs98b9X1m7m FuoyS80JjFQm6HwB0yxEvBMSQs85RTuinG5zk8ttwZkxbJ+U2C+kSnQffZ3mNoL7 LUlxrGZ8Th8ipXG4P3jmXqktk0UVf0r0lo7tvL1gU9Zwhp8/WB8hQox51sZe6YLm 5DHkap/vN0QFSjxil3p48yDW/T0gDspBASP/r8l7nO0VRdRL0mst81jZorsPUyMJ Ms/sxPuWnBAvlgbGrDy5UXJ2fw6ugBsM44lh/d/WH8tYa+V7bWZ4On/blwaptacv DISJQG33Ae9SR22bXW9UEKxDwbnlr+VmEp4L3RNYO31LtnVqgQhlXVCIa1t0mNsL HETKs5eCNGvq1kFJQfbJZmR4rjCYh2Kr9brl3OI1wNHO15nDVtguph4h+VB6jvH1 XWQuRijgOHv5wCElpGdsfyu3IB2Afv5USQRXeBI76/uxAeXcm+w0VLJ9ln7lWgXz Ce2x2vpwL55KHrqTt4arkSqBfVnV7OQC5Gsu4IWoW6ESqUGrAwgYxizPbJjqXeTs lCjvdJiq68vLceTXCKsy4HlCvfVoSiglEG7Y1Tqq5eIGGe3XqgY= =V76a -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --+GZWvc9sQjvsPzXH--