bit-widths, was Re: HP Laserjet ..again....

From: Paul Koning <pkoning_at_equallogic.com>
Date: Thu Sep 23 09:26:04 2004

>>>>> "David" == David V Corbin <dvcorbin_at_optonline.net> writes:

>>>> Do you know why a bi-quinary encoding was used instead of the
>>>> more obvious 8-4-2-1 BCD encoding scheme?

 David> Possible answers....

 David> A) It matches an Abacus...

 David> B) It matches (some?) nixie style tubes?

 David> C) It is just a really cool word?

 David> D) It is a great stumper for Geek-Jeopardy?

 David> [actually I blieve the answer to be "B" with a touch of "A"]

That doesn't sound right; a Nixie has 10 wires, one per digit, plus a
common wire.

A possible answer: because the logic to do add or multiply is simpler
in biquinary than in BCD? You'd have to do the equations and
synthesize the logic to check that.

           paul
Received on Thu Sep 23 2004 - 09:26:04 BST