>"Modern processors use these sizes to be compatible with the 8-bit byte, but older processors used whatever word size was convenient: 12 bits, 13 bits, 17 bits

>"Modern processors use these sizes to be compatible with the 8-bit byte, but older processors used whatever word size was convenient: 12 bits, 13 bits, 17 bits, 27 bits, or pretty much anything." Indeed. I guess it's easy to forget that processor in the 1950s up until 1970's or really before the microprocessor era were all over the map with word sizes. Thanks for the clarification of the die photo. That makes sense. By the way I really enjoy these posts and the discussions. Keep up the great work. Cheers.