23 Sep
2004
23 Sep
'04
2:26 a.m.
>>>> "David" == David V Corbin
<dvcorbin(a)optonline.net> writes:
>>> Do you know why a bi-quinary encoding was
used instead of the
>>> more obvious 8-4-2-1 BCD encoding scheme?
David> Possible answers....
David> A) It matches an Abacus...
David> B) It matches (some?) nixie style tubes?
David> C) It is just a really cool word?
David> D) It is a great stumper for Geek-Jeopardy?
David> [actually I blieve the answer to be "B" with a touch of
"A"]
That doesn't sound right; a Nixie has 10 wires, one per digit, plus a
common wire.
A possible answer: because the logic to do add or multiply is simpler
in biquinary than in BCD? You'd have to do the equations and
synthesize the logic to check that.
paul