16 Oct
2006
16 Oct
'06
2:33 p.m.
Yes, 24 bit machines did exist. In fact before BSD,
there was project Genie
I have a machine here that's 24 bit -- sort-of. The CPU registers are 24
bits wide, as is the ALU, and the full width of the ALU is used to
calculate memory addresses (24 bit address bus). But the main memory data
bus is 16 bits wide, normally loaded into the bottom 16 bits of the ALU
path, but it's possible to take the bottom 8 bits of memory into the top
8 bits of the ALU path (thus letting you load all the bits of a 24 bit
register from memory in 2 'goes').
I am sure you know what that machine is...
-tony