Linux and the 'clssic' computing world

[ben]

On 2021-09-28 2:24 p.m., Paul Koning wrote:

>> My next computer will be 44 bits, if I ever get the routing timing bugs out the FPGA
>> prototype card. I can't change the FPGA vender because I can use TTL macros like 74181, for TTL bread boarding.
>> With the 74181 I can have any width I want, thus I can play with odd sizes.
> 
> For extra credit, create a GCC back end for that design.  :-)

Self-compile Small and Bootstrap seem to be forgotten words.
So is ASCII 69.   I wish they had <-  or -> arrow symbols to replace the 
= 's for assignment.
> 
>> More I play with my designs, I come to the conclusion that
>> 32 bits is not ample for a general purpose computer.
> 
> I think Von Neumann would agree; he picked 40 bits as I recall.  There are all sorts of interesting word lengths out there; the strangest I've worked with is 27 bits one's complement.
Was that a drum machime?
> 	paul
> 
Ben.