dik@cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter) (10/04/90)
(Cross-posted to alt.folklore.computers; followups go overthere.) In article <12857@encore.Encore.COM> jkenton@pinocchio.encore.com (Jeff Kenton) writes: > From article <2721@crdos1.crd.ge.COM>, by davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.COM (Wm E Davidsen Jr): > > The question is, has anyone ever made a general purpose computer with and > > odd word size? No one doesn't count, thank you bit slicers. > All in all, the answer to your question is probably "no". > The answer is most certainly 'yes'. When I learned programming back in the sixties we had an Electrologica X8 (originally designed by the Mathematisch Centrum, now called Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica (CWI), later taken over by Philips). Word size was 27 bits (can you get odder). I still can quote from memory 67108864 (MAXINT+1). It was the successor of the X1, also with 27 bit words. There were quite a few X1's and X8's installed; not only in the Netherlands, but also in Germany for instance (Karlsruhe University if I remember right). The machine was ones complement. Floating point used two words. I still have the programmer's manual next to me here at home. And it was certainly general purpose. The machine we had was decommisioned in about 1976. The machine had very interesting features. I believe it was the first machine that had a separate I/O processor. And it was this machine and its precursor that got Dijkstra to his semaphore stuff. Further characteristics: 64 Kwords of memory of which 32 K directly addressable (when I started only 32 K was enabled). OS was simple: a job consisted of an Algol 60 program, possibly followed by its data. The system would fire up the compiler wich would compile the program and initiate execution. When done the next program was started. Later multi-tasking was implemented with four batch streams, each with its own characteristics. And again later a system was created that allowed interactive operations, although that was for special occasions only. There was another OS that would do Fortran programs but that was nearly never used at our institute. And initially job input was on 7-level papertape (a special coding derived from IBM 7-level). Later versions allowed also 5-level (Baudot/ALCOR) coding, 8-level (ASCII) coding and punched cards (IBM-029 modified). Mmm, that is some time ago. -- dik t. winter, cwi, amsterdam, nederland dik@cwi.nl
emv@math.lsa.umich.edu (Edward Vielmetti) (10/10/90)
In article <509@ssp9.idca.tds.philips.nl> dolf@idca.tds.PHILIPS.nl (Dolf Grunbauer) writes:
started. So I am only expecting trouble with VAX when it is going to
implement user programmable interfaces in their vacuum cleaners or when
DEC builds vacuum cleaners into their machines.
When I used to care for a powerful Vax 11/750 the periodic maintenance
schedule involved vacuuming out the dust bunnies from the system. I
don't think the field engineer used a VAX tho.
Followups to alt.folklore.computers.
--Ed
Edward Vielmetti, U of Michigan math dept <emv@math.lsa.umich.edu>