Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!yale!cmcl2!cmcl2.nyu.edu!gottlieb From: gottlieb@allan.ultra.nyu.edu (Allan Gottlieb) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: 1620 (Was Odd word size? Word size? Word? Definitely Odd.) Message-ID: Date: 5 Oct 90 19:08:53 GMT References: <270CB430.21156@ics.uci.edu> Sender: notes@cmcl2.NYU.EDU Organization: New York University, Ultracomputer project Lines: 17 In-reply-to: baxter@zola.ics.uci.edu's message of 5 Oct 90 16:26:24 GMT In article <270CB430.21156@ics.uci.edu> baxter@zola.ics.uci.edu (Ira Baxter) writes: Earlier 1620s had a multiply instruction which worked by looking up multipler/multiplicand digit pairs in the multiplication table in lower memory. This table had to be loaded correctly before you used multiply. There are apocryphal stories of folk loading the table in such a way that multiplies worked in octal rather than the standard decimal. I programmed one at Grumman Aircraft in the 60s and believe that it was the add tables that were stored. You had a 10 by 10 array that gave the sum (using the mark as carry). I/O devices were (as stated) card reader/punch and typewritter. Huge I/O edge over paper tape in Bendix G15. -- Allan Gottlieb gottlieb@nyu.edu