On Thu, 22 Mar 2001, Jeff Guevin wrote:
> The Web version of the Oxford English Dictionary (http://dictionary.oed.com)
> says a byte is always eight bits:
> [...]
There is at least one computer currently in use whose bytes are 6 bits! :)
It's the MIX machine by Donald Knuth, which you can find about in The Art
of Computer Programming, Volume 1, Fundamental Algorithms. I can't find
the exact wording, since I don't have a copy here. It should be at the
very beginning of Section 1.2 (or 1.3?).
(And for those Knuth fans out there, yes I know that he has introduced
MMIX now, that even adopts Unicode in the identifiers and strings of its
assembly language, MMIXAL, but that came after the publication of last
editions of first three volumes, so all examples in the book are still in
MMIX. It's not official yet!)
--roozbeh
