non-binary computers?

From: ss_at_allegro.com <(ss_at_allegro.com)>
Date: Thu Sep 2 17:18:58 1999

Re:
> A number of early small computers were non-binary. One that comes
> to mind is the IBM 1620 which was a decimal variable word lenght
> machine. The 1620 was in production about 40 years ago and was
> mainly marketed as a business machine. One of the interesting
> features of this machine was that it did all its arthmetic by
> table lookup.

Was that the CADET? (Can't Add, Doesn't Even Try)

> The tables were stored in memory, so you could change how the operations worked!

A colleague of mine, Fred White, tells stories about changing that table for
some scientific routines, and then restoring it at subroutine exit.

sieler_at_allegro.com
Received on Thu Sep 02 1999 - 17:18:58 BST