>>>> "Bj????rn" == Bj????rn
<bv at norbionics.com> writes:
Bj????rn> On Mon, 14 Mar 2005 13:26:23 +0100, Johnny Billquist
Bj????rn> <bqt at Update.UU.SE> wrote:
> On Mon, 14 Mar 2005 Bj?rn <bv at
norbionics.com> wrote:
>
>> A byte is the smallest INDIVIDUALLY
addressable unit of data on a
>> system.
> Nonsense! Where did you get that?
Bj????rn> From Donald Knuth.
That's nice. But while Knuth is an authority on many things, he's not
necessarily an authority on that.
By that definition a PDP-8 byte would be 12 bits, which is clearly not
how the term is used there.
(Then again, on a CDC 6000 the term "byte" does mean 12 bits, it's the
PPU's addressable unit. Hm.)
> Bah. A sixbit character can very well be a byte,
it's just a
> question of if you choose to call it that. Byte addressable is
> not usable as a definition of a byte.
Bj????rn> It does not matter if you do not find it usable, as long as
Bj????rn> it IS the traditional definition. The PDP 10 came long after
Bj????rn> it had been established.
Huh? Knuth's "Fundamental Algorithms" came out well after the PDP-10
(never mind the earlier PDP-6, which is the same architecture).
Bj????rn> The most interesting byte is the one Knuth used in his
Bj????rn> abstract MIX machine, which he came up with when he was here
Bj????rn> in Oslo. To drive home the point that bytes were not
Bj????rn> dependent upon any particular hardware implementation, he
Bj????rn> defined it as able to hold unspecified information, but at
Bj????rn> least 100 different values. I would have thought most people
Bj????rn> here had read his "Fundamental Algorithms"?
Yes. That's a really cute definition, but it certainly has not been
applied anywhere.
paul