Cyhist Apr. 2 1998 A

========================================================================= Date: Thu, 2 Apr 1998 17:29:08 -0400
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: stanley mazor <smazor@BEASYS.COM>
Subject: Re: endianness
X-To: prp@HF.INTEL.COM
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Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________

Little endian (IBM) character machines.
Regarding IBM character machines and addressing, I programmed the IBM 1620 from 1962-1965, and it had (similar to IBM 1401 word marks), field marks "over" the most-significant (6-bit) BCD digit. The highest digit was in the left most, lowest addressed memory, so that it appeared "correctly" when typed to the console "typewriter". Multi-digit decimal arithmetic was implemented in the hardware and the instruction addressed the LSD at the highest address(es); it was a 2-address manchine, Add Q to P.
thx. stan
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