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From: dmt@ptsfa.UUCP (Dave Turner)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Was the 360 badly-designed?  (was Re: Compatibility with EBCDIC)
Message-ID: <3345@ptsfa.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 25-Aug-87 12:29:18 EDT
Article-I.D.: ptsfa.3345
Posted: Tue Aug 25 12:29:18 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 26-Aug-87 07:23:39 EDT
References: <855@tjalk.cs.vu.nl> <2683@hoptoad.uucp> <916@haddock.ISC.COM> <1044@bsu-cs.UUCP> <26390@sun.uucp>
Reply-To: dmt@ptsfa.UUCP (Dave Turner)
Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, CA
Lines: 18

In article <26390@sun.uucp> guy%gorodish@Sun.COM (Guy Harris) writes:
>
>I presume this is intended as a point in favor of SIXBIT, not of ASCII, since
>EBCDIC has them all as well.  Why is the ability to pack characters into 6 bits
>so wonderful for this application - especially on an 8-bit-byte machine like a
>360?
>

I began my programming career on IBM 1401's, 7074's and 360's, then moved on
to PDP11's and UNIX.

We used punched cards for all input; the 1401's used BCD (six bits) internally.

IBM created E BCD IC to allow its customers to migrate to the 360 without
having to pay the cost of rewriting all existing software.

-- 
Dave Turner	415/542-1299	{ihnp4,lll-crg,qantel,pyramid}!ptsfa!dmt