Byte sizes (was Re: 2.8M 3.5' floppy (was: three and a quarter loppy?)

der Mouse mouse at Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA
Mon Mar 14 14:16:49 CST 2005


> Also, the MC68000 has bit-manipulation instructions that can address
> individual bits, but it is not considered to have one-bit bytes.

The VAX likewise.  But those take multiple operands which collectively
name the bits to be operated on.  The description of the -10 as I read
it implied that there was a single object, defined by the hardware,
which encapsulated the word address, bit number, and size, which sounds
way too much like a bit address.  (You could assemble such a thing for
the VAX or the 68k, but the hardware wouldn't understand it; you'd have
to pull it apart into individual operands for the instructions.)

Now, it may be that I misunderstood the description of the PDP-10, and
what it actually has is instructions like the VAX or 68k, in which case
my point is a non-point.

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