3 ms·
IIRC PDP-11 was a 16 bit word machine with an 8-bit byte. Maybe you remember PDP-10 with 4x9=36 bit words?
by elch 4mo ago
IIRC PDP-11 was a 16 bit word machine with an 8-bit byte. Maybe you remember PDP-10 with 4x9=36 bit words?
- uecker 4mo agoAnyway, I do not see how this affects the design of C in a way that makes no sense anymore today (except that one could require CHAR_BIT to be eight, but there are still DSPs where this is not the case). I think people repeat the "the C design reflects the out-dated PDP-11 hardware" meme because it sounds smart while in reality it is just nonsense.
- pjmlp 4mo agoSo when is WG14 standardising modern hardware into the C standard? Basic stuff like SIMD, SIMT, without requiring users to go beyond language extensions, something that any programming language can offer in similar capacity?
- uecker 4mo agoAh, the "what is not standardized does not exist" argument again.
- 1718627440 4mo agoWhy does the language standard need to prescribe everything. It is a standardization of between existing compilers, they are allowed and intended to invent things. If anything the experience from C++ has shown, that writing too much behaviour into the standard accidentally has consequences on the possible performance. The C standard is descriptive, not prescriptive. > something that any programming language can offer in similar capacity? By your measure a lot of other languages don't offer anything to begin with, because they do not have a standard at all, only a reference implementation.
- shakna 4mo agoOn the 11, the UNIBUS was 18 bit, the program space was 16 bit, and addressing was 22 bit. So it depended if you were using I-space or D-space.
- zabzonk 4mo agoActually, if you were mad enough to use the feature, the Dec10 had 6-bit "bytes" - 6 to a word.