CYBER word length

[Kim DeVaughn]

In article <612 at astroatc.UUCP>, philm at astroatc.UUCP (Phil Mason) writes:
>                       CDC thought that nobody would ever use more than 64
> different symbols for I/O so they made their "byte" six bits long.  Packing
> ten of them in a word is convenient, to say the least.

And then they discovered that people would use more than 64 symbols, and
had to come up with an escape kluge to get additional symbols.  So now
CDC Display Codes can be either 6-bits or 12-bits in length.

/kim


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