The distinction was slightly more subtle -- "slice-wise" was a storage mode for data in which a 32-bit float would be stored as one bit in the memory of 32 proc

The distinction was slightly more subtle -- "slice-wise" was a storage mode for data in which a 32-bit float would be stored as one bit in the memory of 32 processors, so the "transposers" could be bypassed going in and out. It was supported by the Fortran compiler and by a microcode-like internal layer called "CMIS" (which was, I think, available to at least some customers -- I worked there). Code in other languages still used the FPUs, if available -- but they paid the "transpose in, transpose out" overhead on every operation.