byte alignment

[Ed Nather]

[]

From: grt at hocda.UUCP (G.TOMASEVICH)

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The description of the IBM STRETCH reminds me of the IBM 1620.  It represented
data as BCD characters (8, 4, 2, 1, flag, check bits).  Numbers had a flag
bit at one end to mark the field.  The arithmetic precision was continuously
variable up to the capacity of the memory.  I once set up memory to multiply
two 10000-digit numbers; it took about a second.
George Tomasevich, AT&T Bell Laboratories
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Also of note: this machine did all its arithmetic functions by table
look-up, on character at a time.  What is 3 X 3?  Look in the table and
find "9" -- 7 + 4?  1 carry 1.  It was *neat*.

It was also called the CADET -- (For Can't Add -- Doesn't Even Try.)




-- 

                                       Ed Nather
                                       ihnp4!{ut-sally,kpno}!utastro!nather
                                       Astronomy Dept., U. of Texas, Austin