Comment by Taniwha
10 hours ago
I've worked on a machine with 9-bit bytes (and 81-bit instructions) and others with 6-bit ones - nether has a C compiler
10 hours ago
I've worked on a machine with 9-bit bytes (and 81-bit instructions) and others with 6-bit ones - nether has a C compiler
The Nintendo64 had 9-bit RAM. But, C viewed it as 8 bit. The 9th bit was only there for the RSP (GPU).
I think the pdp-10 could have 9 bit bytes, depending on decisions you made in the compiler. I notice it's hard to Google information about this though. People say lots of confusing, conflicting things. When I google pdp-10 byte size it says a c++ compiler chose to represent char as 36 bits.
PDP-10 byte size is not fixed. Bytes can be 0 to 36 bits wide. (Sure, 0 is not very useful; still legal.)
I don't think there is a C++ compiler for the PDP-10. One of the C compiler does have a 36-bit char type.
Do you have any links/info on how that 0-bit byte worked? It sounds like just the right thing for a Friday afternoon read ;D