Rayethon Computer AN/FYK9 CMI Store 33

Chuck Guzis cclist at sydex.com
Tue Sep 25 11:21:55 CDT 2018


On 09/25/2018 08:45 AM, Christian Corti via cctalk wrote:
> On Mon, 24 Sep 2018, Chuck Guzis wrote:
>> How about some 22-bit or 13 bit architectures?
> 
> How about our Dietz MINCAL 523? 19 bit architecture, memory is 20 bits
> with parity. Microprogrammed machine, microcode within normal address
> space, mixed twos-complement and sign-magnitude arithmetic. Completely
> reverse-engineered due to lack of information :-))
> 8K core memory, microcode and boot loader stored in foil ROMs (similar
> to wire rope ROMs).

I was wondering if anyone would rise to the challenge.  In fact, some
Harvard-architecture MCUs have unusual *instruction* word lengths.

I think the PB250 was 22/44 bits and, of course, there was a whole horde
of 36-bit mainframes, some extending well into the 1980s, as well as
other systems with multiples of 6 bit lengths.

How many of today's ISAs are *not* byte-addressable nor implement a
stack?  I'm somewhat curious as to how HLLs have influenced our thought
regarding architecture.

--Chuck



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