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Cyhist Apr 09 1997 C
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Date: Wed, 9 Apr 1997 15:34:15 -0700
Reply-To: les@cs.stanford.edu
Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: Les Earnest <les@STEAM.STANFORD.EDU>
Subject: 1401 architecture
X-cc: John Ahlstrom <jahlstro@CISCO.COM>
In-Reply-To: John Ahlstrom's message of Wed, 9 Apr 1997 08:35:55 -0700
<199704091856.LAA26491@Steam.Stanford.EDU>
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
John Ahlstrom writes:
I believe that "byte" was used in the Bucholz book "Project Stretch".
As many of you will recall, that term was in use earlier and meant a variable number of bits that were processed as a unit. For example, the DEC-6/10/20 family of computers had byte manipulation instructions that allowed one to extract any number of contiguous bits from anywhere in a 36 bit word or to deposit such a byte into a word.
Because of IBM's marketing dominance in the '60s and somewhat later, the variable length byte fell into obscurity, bytes became just 8 bits long and the world lost a bit more diversity. (Or a more diverse byte.)
-Les Earnest
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: les@cs.stanford.edu
Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: Les Earnest <les@STEAM.STANFORD.EDU>
Subject: 1401 architecture
X-cc: John Ahlstrom <jahlstro@CISCO.COM>
In-Reply-To: John Ahlstrom's message of Wed, 9 Apr 1997 08:35:55 -0700
<199704091856.LAA26491@Steam.Stanford.EDU>
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
John Ahlstrom writes:
I believe that "byte" was used in the Bucholz book "Project Stretch".
As many of you will recall, that term was in use earlier and meant a variable number of bits that were processed as a unit. For example, the DEC-6/10/20 family of computers had byte manipulation instructions that allowed one to extract any number of contiguous bits from anywhere in a 36 bit word or to deposit such a byte into a word.
Because of IBM's marketing dominance in the '60s and somewhat later, the variable length byte fell into obscurity, bytes became just 8 bits long and the world lost a bit more diversity. (Or a more diverse byte.)
-Les Earnest
______________________________________________________________________
