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From: Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: What does the "L" mean
Date: Fri, 06 Dec 2019 22:20:54 -0800
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Vir Campestris <vir.campestris@invalid.invalid> writes:

> On 04/12/2019 09:20, T wrote:
>
>> 36 bit?  My brain hurts
>
> I've used systems where the native word size is 16, 24, 32, 36 and 64
> bit.  Other values are available :(  [...]
>
> The one with 36 bits (DECSystem10) an address was the address of a
> word, and you couldn't point to a character inside the word.

The PDP-10 did have a format, and instructions that used that
format, to access any contiguous set of bits within a 36-bit
word.  They were called, IIRC, byte pointers, and would serve
perfectly well as a representation for 'char *' and 'void *'.