[comp.unix.wizards] *Why* do modern machines have 8-bit bytes?

bob@Iago.Caltech.EDU (Robert S. Logan) (07/30/87)

iwsl6!res (Rich Strebendt) writes re the LGP-30:

>	The one-an-only I/O device was a Frieden Flexowriter with a
>	paper tape reader/punch.  Noisy, but quite reliable.

Would you believe we just threw our trusty Flexowriter away a few months
ago? For the last 20 years it held down a workbench. As I recall, it drew
about an amp every time it printed a character. No experiment using
electronic equipment could be done within 100 feet of one. The FCC would
not approve!

Of course the LGP-30 was quite a hunk itself:

	The LGP-30 is 26" deep, 33" high and 44" long, exclusive of the
	typewriter shelf. The computer weighs approximately 800 pounds and
	is mounted on sturdy casters...

It had 113 tubes and 1450 diodes in 34 cards (of 12 types). Main memory
was a drum with 4096 words. It had 16 op codes, so I guess it was an early
RISC machine.

Hmmm... not too much to do with UNIX. I doubt anyone ever did a port.
I couldn't resist, since I found the manuals for it.
--
Robert S. Logan
Campus Computing Organization, 158-79 Caltech, Pasadena, CA, 91125
818-356-4631
rslogan@caltech.bitnet
bob@iago.caltech.edu
...!ucbvax!bob%iago@hamlet.caltech.edu

The above opinions are licensed (not sold)...