Jeffrey L. Taylor wrote: > 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. > >
Many microprocessors are 4 bit, when used for such things as calculators etc., that don't need 8 bits. The very first microprocessor, the Intel 4004 was 4 bits. The 8 bit CPU's also have an 8 bit word. -- Use OpenOffice.org <http://www.openoffice.org> -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
