News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:We'd be Better Off with 9-bit Bytes by Taniwha on Wednesday August 06, 2025 @07:02PM (#44818856)
Not really - I worked on a DSP with 9-bit bytes in the 90's (largely because it was focused on MPEG decode for DVDs, new at the time) largely because memory was still very expensive and MPEG2 needed 9-bit frame difference calculations (most people do this as 16-bits these days but back then as I said memory was expensive and you could buy 9-bit parity RAM chips)

It had 512 72-bit registers and was very SIMD/VLIW, was probably the only machine ever with 81-bit instructions

Re:We'd be Better Off with 9-bit Bytes by chaboud on Thursday August 07, 2025 @12:46AM (#44820671)
Mpact 2?

If memory serves, I had a Creative Labs DXR2 that I almost immediately regretted.

PDP-10 could do 9-bit (or 7, or 6) bytes into 36-bit words. It seems like something that would be fun for 1-2 days.

Re:We'd be Better Off with 9-bit Bytes by Taniwha on Thursday August 07, 2025 @07:37AM (#44823197)
Yup, M2 had 81-bit instructions, M1 had 72-bit ones