bit-widths, was Re: HP Laserjet ..again....

[Paul Koning]

>>>>> "David" == David V Corbin <dvcorbin at optonline.net> writes:

 >>>>  Do you know why a bi-quinary encoding was used instead of the
 >>>> more obvious 8-4-2-1 BCD encoding scheme?

 David> Possible answers....

 David> A) It matches an Abacus...

 David> B) It matches (some?) nixie style tubes?

 David> C) It is just a really cool word?

 David> D) It is a great stumper for Geek-Jeopardy?

 David> [actually I blieve the answer to be "B" with a touch of "A"]

That doesn't sound right; a Nixie has 10 wires, one per digit, plus a
common wire.  

A possible answer: because the logic to do add or multiply is simpler
in biquinary than in BCD?  You'd have to do the equations and
synthesize the logic to check that.

	   paul