Article View: comp.arch
Article #12793Re: what's a word
From: Mark Campbell
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 1986 14:53
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 1986 14:53
21 lines
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1573 bytes
In article <7426@utzoo.UUCP> henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) writes:
>> A word is the 'natural' unit of operations on a machine.
>> (Which means that 32 bits on a vax should really be called a word, not
>> a longword.)
>
>The only reason it's called a longword is because of all the semi-subliminal
>it's-really-just-a-big-pdp11-so-don't-worry-about-incompatibility marketing
>horseshit that surrounded the vax in its early days. Remember when a 780's
>official designation was a "VAX-11/780"?
>--
> Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
> {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry
[For what it's worth...]
A DEC field representitive in the late 70's told me that the reason that the
VAX word was 16 bits was that the Government classified machines by word
size when purchasing -- thus the VAX would have competed with a higher
class of machines in contracts.
--
Mark Campbell
{}!ncsu!ncrcae!sauron!campbell
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Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!mnetor!seismo!esosun!net1!sdcsvax!hp-sdd!ncr-sd!ncrcae!sauron!campbell From: campbell@sauron.UUCP (Mark Campbell) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: what's a word Message-ID: <795@sauron.UUCP> Date: Fri, 19-Dec-86 09:53:07 EST Article-I.D.: sauron.795 Posted: Fri Dec 19 09:53:07 1986 Date-Received: Sat, 20-Dec-86 08:36:12 EST References: <112@bnr-vpa.UUCP> <9200002@rmi.UUCP> <193@drilex.UUCP> <7426@utzoo.UUCP> Reply-To: campbell@sauron.UUCP (Mark Campbell) Organization: NCR Corp., Advanced System Development, Columbia, SC Lines: 21