Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.UUCP (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Why 32 bits?
Message-ID: <7719@cbmvax.UUCP>
Date: 21 Aug 89 16:26:15 GMT
References: <1710@ibmpa.UUCP>
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 17

in article <1710@ibmpa.UUCP>, lmb@ibmpa.UUCP (Larry Breed) says:
> Summary: Blame it on checkers

> Apocryphally, and perhaps even in truth, Herbert Simon and his checkers-
> playing program influenced the choice of 36 bits.  

No wonder we had all those DEC-20s back at CMU in the early 80's.  

The 36 vs. 32 bit word also helped in that architecture considerably by
giving you 18 bits of address vs. the 16 bits that a 32 bit word would 
have allowed.

> 	Larry Breed
-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Systems Engineering) "The Crew That Never Rests"
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            We have no choice.  We are, after all, professionals.