16 Sep
2016
16 Sep
'16
4:41 p.m.
On 09/16/2016 03:20 PM, Jecel Assumpcao Jr. wrote:
Note that in the conclusion to this 1979 article, the
Motorola
engineers say "It is a 32-bit architecture that supports many data
types and data addresses."
Unfortunately, that doesn't clear the picture any.
What would you call a Packard-Bell PB250, with its bit-serial ALU and
delay line memory? It had a 22 bit word, with addressing granularity to
match. So it's a 22-bit architecture?
The TMS9900 has already been identified as a 16-bit ISA, even with its
bit-serial ALU.
So some enterprising soul could device a shift-register-based MPU with
1-bit memory bus, but with a 256 bit word size and it would be a 256 bit
ISA?
Now you understand my "Alice Through the Looking-Glass" quote.
--Chuck