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Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!cmcl2!phri!roy
From: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.m68k,comp.std.internat,comp.arch
Subject: How do you say "byte" in French?
Message-ID: <2523@phri.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 3-Dec-86 21:09:06 EST
Article-I.D.: phri.2523
Posted: Wed Dec  3 21:09:06 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 4-Dec-86 02:47:43 EST
References: <125@ogesml0.UUCP>
Reply-To: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith)
Organization: Public Health Research Inst. (NY, NY)
Lines: 20
Xref: mnetor comp.sys.m68k:54 comp.std.internat:13 comp.arch:82
Original-Subject: Re: dhrystones MT2025


In article <125@ogesml0.UUCP> ciaran@ogesml0.UUCP (Ciaran O'Donnell) writes:
> 6450 dhrystones/second on the MT2025 processing module of the SM90 (68020
> CPU, 25 Mhz clock, zero wait states in r/w, 1 megabyte of on-board DRAM)
> 
> 6450 dhrystones/seconde, sur la SM90 module de traitement MT2025 (CPU 68020,
> vitesse 25 Mhz, zero wait states, 1 megaoctet de RAM dynamique sur la carte)

	I don't know French, but it seems pretty clear that the phrases "1
megabyte" and "1 megaoctet" are equivalent.  Is "octet" the proper French
translation of of the English "byte"?  Assuming that it is, doesn't that
presuppose that a byte is 8 bits?  We have enough trouble here teaching
people that a byte doesn't have to be 8 bits -- if you call it an "octet",
it must be even more confusing: "the VAX has 8-bit octets, but the PDP-10
has 9-bit octets."
-- 
Roy Smith, {allegra,cmcl2,philabs}!phri!roy
System Administrator, Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016

"you can't spell deoxyribonucleic without unix!"