[e2e] OT: a different number base

[Randy Bush]

ok.  i was gonna stay outta this, as there have been so many
systems with non-base2.  but i will now plug the ibm 1401, a
character-based architecture, with each addressable location
being a bcd-encoded character with a parity bit and a word-
mark bit.  so decimal one hundred and twenty three would be
represented as _123 (the _ being the word-mark on the 1).  an
add op-code was the character A (S was subtract, ...), and
the two operands were the addresses of the low-order digits
of the two numbers, and the operation would proceed from low
to high, stopping at the word-marks.

much of this was inherited from the 1310 and the 1650 (i
think i have those numbers correctly).  but the 1401 kind of
tidied it up and made it really elegant.

tom jennings seems to have rescued an LGP-21 in beautiful
shape, see <http://wps.com/>.  but i will let vint and steve
crocker beat the drum for that machine :-).

but why is this thread on e2e as opposed to history?

randy