Re: bytes, Keeping other stuff with addresses

According to Scott Lurndal <slp53@pacbell.net>:

8-bits won because it was enough (at the time of inception {IBM
360--1963})

>
8-bits is also a convenient multiple of four bits, which was common
in many machines prior to the 360.  The hardware in burroughs
BCD machines could automatically add/remove the zone digit (bits <7:4>)
during data movement.

Good point.  S/360 packed decimal puts two digits in each byte with the low
"digit" of the low order byte being the sign.  If they had six bit bytes, the
only other size they seriously considered, they'd either waste 1/3 of the
bits with a digit per byte, or need what would then have been an impossibly
complex encoding.

Several decades later, decimal floating point used such a complex encoding.




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