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Computers never used 7-bit bytes similarly to how 5-bit bytes were uncommon, but both 6-bit and 8-bit bytes were common in their respective eras.
by formerly_proven 1y ago
Computers never used 7-bit bytes similarly to how 5-bit bytes were uncommon, but both 6-bit and 8-bit bytes were common in their respective eras.
- goku12 1y agoI was asking about ASCII encoding and not the word size. But this information is also useful. So apparently, people were representing both numbers and script codes (EBCDIC in particular) in packed decimal or octal at times. The standardization on 8 bits and adoption of raw binary representation seems to have come later.
- formerly_proven 1y agoBecause character encodings were primarily designed around transmission over serial lines.
- goku12 1y agoAgreed. But how does that affect how encoding are designed? I mean packed decimal vs octal vs full binary, etc?