1 Oct
2004
1 Oct
'04
6:58 a.m.
Was there any UNIX with 6-bit wide, 7-bit wide or 9-bit wide bytes or all
UNIXes are 8-bit wide bytes?
BBN had a version of UNIX for the C/70 machine which had 10 bit bytes.
This is memorialized in the "IP/TCP Implementation Status" section of the
historic RFC 801 which describes the NCP to TCP transition plan, thus:
APPENDIX D. IP/TCP Implementation Status
Please note that the information in this section may become quickly
dated. Current information on the status of IP and TCP
implementations can be obtained from the file
<INTERNET-NOTEBOOK>TCP-IP-STATUS.TXT on ISIF.
BBN C70 UNIX
Date: 18 Nov 1981
From: Rob Gurwitz <gurwitz at BBN-RSM>
The C/70 processor is a BBN-designed system with a native
instruction set oriented toward executing the C language. It
supports UNIX Version 7 and provides for user processes with a
20-bit address space. The TCP/IP implementation for the C/70 was
ported from the BBN VAX TCP/IP, and shares all of its features.
This version of TCP/IP is running experimentally at BBN, but is
still under development. Performance tuning is underway, to make
it more compatible with the C/70's memory management system.
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