10 Sep
2022
10 Sep
'22
1:39 a.m.
Paul Winalski and Bakul Shah commented on bit addressable machines
on the TUHS list recently. From Blaauw and Brooks' excellent
Computer Architecture book
http://www.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/master.html#Blaauw:1997:CAC
on page 98, I find
> ...
> The earliest computer with bit resolution is the [IBM 7030] Stretch.
> The Burroughs B1700 (1972) and CDC STAR100 (1973) are later examples.
>
> Bit resolution is costly in format space, since it uses a maximum
> number of bits for address and length specification. Sharpening
> resolution from the byte to the bit costs the same as increasing
> address-space size eight-fold.
>
> Since almost all storage realizations are organized as matrices,
> bit resolution is also expensive in time or equipment.
> ...
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