From: mwood@indyvax.iupui.edu (Mark H. Wood)
Subject: Re: HELP ! need to insert value in array !!
Date: 1997/07/07
Date: 1997-07-07T00:00:00+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <1997Jul7.091353.28784@indyvax.iupui.edu> (raw)
In-Reply-To: dewar.868049804@merv
In article <dewar.868049804@merv>, dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar) writes:
> iRichard O'Keefe said
>
> <<Note that 5 ASCII characters per word was a software convention<<
>
> I think that is wrong, there were hardware instructions on the PDP10 that
> used this format, I am pretty sure of this, but it is a while ago ...
Nope. Byte operations on the PDP10 architecture all go through a "byte
pointer" object that can deal with any contiguous collection of 1 to 36 bits
that doesn't cross a 36-bit word boundary. It's the OS that had a
predisposition for five 7-bit ASCII bytes per word, in string operations.
Serial I/O hardware had to deal with other realities, but most of it was
slotted into PDP11 frontend processors so it sat behind translation software
anyway. Interfacing 36-bit hardware with 16-bit hardware made for some
interesting programming (and interesting hardware!), to say the least.
--
Mark H. Wood, Lead Systems Programmer +1 317 274 0749 [@disclaimer@]
MWOOD@INDYVAX.IUPUI.EDU Finger for more information.
Thank goodness we've left behind the bad old days, before computers were
transformed from reliable business machines into performance art.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~1997-07-07 0:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 29+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
[not found] <33A9C27C.22F7@post4.tele.dk>
[not found] ` <5oci49$97g@crl.crl.com>
[not found] ` <866920621snz@genesis.demon.co.uk>
1997-06-27 0:00 ` HELP ! need to insert value in array !! Ralph Silverman
1997-06-28 0:00 ` Lawrence Kirby
[not found] ` <dewar.867554609@merv>
1997-06-29 0:00 ` Mike Rubenstein
1997-06-29 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-29 0:00 ` Mike Rubenstein
1997-06-29 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-29 0:00 ` Mike Rubenstein
1997-06-30 0:00 ` Ed Hook
1997-07-04 0:00 ` Richard A. O'Keefe
1997-07-07 0:00 ` Clive D.W. Feather
1997-07-01 0:00 ` Al Bowers
1997-07-01 0:00 ` Richard Kenner
1997-07-01 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-07-02 0:00 ` Christian Froeschlin
1997-07-02 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-07-04 0:00 ` Richard A. O'Keefe
1997-07-04 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-07-04 0:00 ` Mike Rubenstein
1997-07-05 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-07-05 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
1997-07-05 0:00 ` Mike Rubenstein
1997-07-05 0:00 ` Mike Rubenstein
1997-07-10 0:00 ` Alan Bowler
1997-07-07 0:00 ` Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz
1997-07-07 0:00 ` Mark H. Wood [this message]
1997-07-09 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-07-10 0:00 ` Lawrence Kirby
1997-07-08 0:00 ` Richard Kenner
1997-06-30 0:00 ` Samuel T. Harris
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