Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!panix!.POSTED.2602:f977:0:1::5!not-for-mail From: Rich Alderson Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.os.linux.misc Subject: Re: The joy of FORTRAN Date: 26 Feb 2025 19:51:56 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC Lines: 44 Sender: alderson+news@panix5.panix.com Message-ID: References: <1smdnSjX3YoxgWf7nZ2dnZfqn_idnZ2d@earthlink.com> <1396870532.749421730.052473.peter_flass-yahoo.com@news.eternal-september.org> <1976765442.762208809.808387.peter_flass-yahoo.com@news.eternal-september.org> <20250225130315.00004e34@gmail.com> <20250225132209.00006cdd@gmail.com> <1517019530.762216070.153616.peter_flass-yahoo.com@news.eternal-september.org> <20250225151941.00007598@gmail.com> Injection-Info: reader1.panix.com; posting-host="2602:f977:0:1::5"; logging-data="17484"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@panix.com" X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.7/Emacs 22.3 Lawrence D'Oliveiro writes: > On Tue, 25 Feb 2025 15:19:41 -0800, John Ames wrote: >> On Tue, 25 Feb 2025 23:02:32 -0000 (UTC) >> Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote: >>> I wonder why DEC's 18-bit range weren't more popular; though I think they >>> had less consistency between members of the range than DEC's other product >>> families. >> I suspect that, in the computer market of the early '60s, they ended up >> as the awkward middle child ... Mr. Ames's suspicion is unfounded. The 18 bit systems were neither awkward nor unsuccessful. > Still, they were the product line that launched DEC's computer career, with > the PDP-1. Since DEC's original intent was to build small computers (at their founding in 1957), that's rather a fatuous statement. The choice of 18 bits was related to the scientific computing standard of the day, in which large computers used a 36 bit word. See the relationship? >> ... small labs/offices/embedded applications >> could get a basic computer cheaper with the -12 ... > Cost was certainly a factor in putting up with the compromises. The 12-bit > line was clearly a cut-down derivative of the 18-bit line. In those days, all > hardware was expensive, but the 12-bit machines less so. In fact, the PDP-5 (DEC's third computer and first 12 bit system) was originally designed as a data capture front end for the 18 bit PDP-4, in a nuclear control application for the Canadians. Cf. Bell's _Computer Engineering_. -- Rich Alderson news@alderson.users.panix.com Audendum est, et veritas investiganda; quam etiamsi non assequamur, omnino tamen proprius, quam nunc sumus, ad eam perveniemus. --Galen