Jeffrey L. Taylor wrote:
Quoting Aaron Kulkis <akulkis3@hotpop.com>:
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: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org