Re: Linux and the 'clssic' computing world

[Paul Koning via cctalk]

> On Sep 28, 2021, at 8:32 PM, ben <bfranc...@jetnet.ab.ca> wrote:
> 
> On 2021-09-28 2:24 p.m., Paul Koning wrote:
> 
>>> ...
>>> More I play with my designs, I come to the conclusion that
>>> 32 bits is not ample for a general purpose computer.
>> I think Von Neumann would agree; he picked 40 bits as I recall.  There are 
>> all sorts of interesting word lengths out there; the strangest I've worked 
>> with is 27 bits one's complement.
> Was that a drum machime?

Not a drum machine.  Core memory, all solid state -- one of the first, and as 
far as I know the first commercial product with interrupts standard.  
Electrologica X1, from 1958.  Also its successor the X8, around 1964.  The X8 
had a drum as a peripheral device, used in the THE operating system for paging 
virtual memory (512 k words).

        paul