Quoting Aaron Kulkis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> James Knott wrote:
> >Örn Hansen wrote:
> >>  I think a byte is always 2^8, no matter what. 
> >>  
> >Frayed knot!  There were systems that used 6 bit bytes and probably
> >other sizes too.
> 
> Doubly frayed knot...
> 
> 
> Those aren't bytes, those are words.
> 
> Wordsize may vary, but bytes are 8 bits.
> and nybbles are 4 bits.
> 

Bytes were 6, or 8, or possibly others.  A byte was a character, 6 bits for
BCD, 8 bits for EBCDIC and ASCII.  I know, I was there.  Now, 6 bit words, I
never saw any of them.  IIRC, 12 bit words was the smallest I ever saw.

Jeffrey
Registered Old Fart/Greybeard
Programming since before there were ICs (ie. 1967)
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