Comment by AlienRobot

>A 9-bit byte is found on 36-bit machines in quarter-word mode.

I've only programmed in high level programming languages in 8-bit-byte machines. I can't understand what you mean by this sentence.

So in a 36-bit CPU a word is 36 bits. And a byte isn't a word. But what is a word and how does it differ from a byte?

If you asked me what 32-bit/64-bit means in a CPU, I'd say it's how large memory addresses can be. Is that true for 36-bit CPUs or does it mean something else? If it's something else, then that means 64-bit isn't the "word" of a 64-bit CPU, so what would the word be?

This is all very confusing.