>William Chops Westfield <PICLISTEraseMERemoveMEMITVMA.MIT.EDU> wrote:
>
>> AFAIK, a "byte" did not have any inherent size prior to
>> microcomputers and microprocessors (at which point it became 8 bits,
>> since that was the native addressable size.)  CDC bytes were 6 bits,
>> IBM varied, and the DEC PDP10 had special "byte pointer" instuctions
>> that could handle any byte size from 1 to 36 bits within its 36-bit
>> words (word addressable machine.)
>
>Bill:
>
>That's true, more or less... The word "byte" was originally defined
>as the amount used to represent one character; when the word was
>first coined, a "byte" was a six-bit number.
>
>However... The 8-bit definition of "byte" predates microcomputers and
>microprocessors by over a decade; the IBM System/360, designed in the
>'50s, started to standardize a "byte" as eight bits.  Ever since
>then, most people have used the word "byte" specifically to mean an
>eight-bit quantity, and referred to the other sizes -- imprecisely --
>as "words".
>
>-Andy
>
>=== Andrew Warren - STOPspamfastfwdSTOPspamspamix.netcom.com
>=== Fast Forward Engineering - Vista, California
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>