Early computers was Re: Relay computers

From: Paul Koning <pkoning_at_equallogic.com>
Date: Mon Sep 27 09:03:36 2004

>>>>> "Ron" == Ron Hudson <ron.hudson_at_sbcglobal.net> writes:

 Ron> On Sep 26, 2004, at 11:51 AM, David V. Corbin wrote:

>>>>> Ron wrote.... Why not have it add ascii directly... "1" + "1"
>>>>> = "2" :^)
>>
>>
>> Who EVER implied a relation between decimal representation and
>> ascii representation??????????
>>
>> David.
>>
>>

 Ron> no one... just me just now... Didn't and older IBM machine
 Ron> store numbers digit by digit in consecutive words (allowing you
 Ron> to setup integers as long/wide as you needed) ?

Yes, that exactly describes the IBM 1620. (It even had variable
length floating point -- any number of digits for the mantissa, though
always 2 digits for the exponent.)

       paul
Received on Mon Sep 27 2004 - 09:03:36 BST