Article View: comp.arch
Article #1910Re: Why 32 bits?
From: Dave Haynie
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 1989 16:26
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 1989 16:26
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1047 bytes
in article <1710@ibmpa.UUCP>, lmb@ibmpa.UUCP (Larry Breed) says:
> Summary: Blame it on checkers
> Apocryphally, and perhaps even in truth, Herbert Simon and his checkers-
> playing program influenced the choice of 36 bits.
No wonder we had all those DEC-20s back at CMU in the early 80's.
The 36 vs. 32 bit word also helped in that architecture considerably by
giving you 18 bits of address vs. the 16 bits that a 32 bit word would
have allowed.
> Larry Breed
--
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Systems Engineering) "The Crew That Never Rests"
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!cbmvax!daveh From: daveh@cbmvax.UUCP (Dave Haynie) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Why 32 bits? Message-ID: <7719@cbmvax.UUCP> Date: 21 Aug 89 16:26:15 GMT References: <1710@ibmpa.UUCP> Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA Lines: 17