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Slab (unit)
The NCR 315 Data Processing System, released in January 1962 by NCR, is a second-generation computer. All printed circuit boards use resistor–transistor logic (RTL) to create the various logic elements. It uses 12-bit ''slab'' memory structure using magnetic-core memory. The instructions can use a memory slab as either two 6-bit alphanumeric characters or as three 4-bit BCD digits. Basic memory is 5000 "slabs" (10,000 characters or 15,000 decimal digits) of handmade core memory, which is expandable to a maximum of 40,000 slabs (80,000 characters or 120,000 decimal digits) in four refrigerator-size cabinets. The main processor includes three cabinets and a console section that houses the power supply, keyboard, output writer (an IBM electric typewriter), and a panel with lights that indicate the current status of the program counter, registers, arithmetic accumulator, and system errors. Input/Output is by direct parallel connections to each type of peripheral through a two-cab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Word Length
In computing, a word is the natural unit of data used by a particular processor design. A word is a fixed-sized datum handled as a unit by the instruction set or the hardware of the processor. The number of bits or digits in a word (the ''word size'', ''word width'', or ''word length'') is an important characteristic of any specific processor design or computer architecture. The size of a word is reflected in many aspects of a computer's structure and operation; the majority of the registers in a processor are usually word-sized and the largest datum that can be transferred to and from the working memory in a single operation is a word in many (not all) architectures. The largest possible address size, used to designate a location in memory, is typically a hardware word (here, "hardware word" means the full-sized natural word of the processor, as opposed to any other definition used). Documentation for older computers with fixed word size commonly states memory sizes in words ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ampersand
The ampersand, also known as the and sign, is the logogram , representing the conjunction "and". It originated as a ligature of the letters ''et''—Latin for "and". Etymology Traditionally in English, when spelling aloud, any letter that could also be used as a word in itself ("A", "I", and, " O") was prefixed with the Latin expression ('by itself'), as in "per se A". It was also common practice to add the sign at the end of the alphabet as if it were the 27th letter, pronounced as the Latin ''et'' or later in English as ''and''. As a result, the recitation of the alphabet would end in "X, Y, Z, ''and per se and''". This last phrase was routinely slurred to "ampersand" and the term had entered common English usage by 1837. It has been falsely claimed that André-Marie Ampère used the symbol in his widely read publications and that people began calling the new shape "Ampère's and". History The ampersand can be traced back to the 1st century A.D. and the old Roman ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space (punctuation)
In writing, a space () is a blank area that separates words, sentences, syllables (in syllabification) and other written or printed glyphs (characters). Conventions for spacing vary among languages, and in some languages the spacing rules are complex. Inter-word spaces ease the reader's task of identifying words, and avoid outright ambiguities such as "now here" vs. "nowhere". They also provide convenient guides for where a human or program may start new lines. Typesetting can use spaces of varying widths, just as it can use graphic characters of varying widths. Unlike graphic characters, typeset spaces are commonly stretched in order to align text. The typewriter, on the other hand, typically has only one width for all characters, including spaces. Following widespread acceptance of the typewriter, some typewriter conventions influenced typography and the design of printed works. Computer representation of text facilitates getting around mechanical and physical limitations s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comma
The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark () in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline of the text. Some typefaces render it as a small line, slightly curved or straight, but inclined from the vertical. Other fonts give it the appearance of a miniature filled-in figure on the baseline. The comma is used in many contexts and languages, mainly to separate parts of a sentence such as clauses, and items in lists mainly when there are three or more items listed. The word ''comma'' comes from the Greek (), which originally meant a cut-off piece, specifically in grammar, a short clause. A comma-shaped mark is used as a diacritic in several writing systems and is considered distinct from the cedilla. In Byzantine and modern copies of Ancient Greek, the " rough" and "smooth breathings" () appear above the letter. In Latvi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
At Sign
The at sign, , is normally read aloud as "at"; it is also commonly called the at symbol, commercial at, or address sign. It is used as an accounting and invoice abbreviation meaning "at a rate of" (e.g. 7 widgets @ £2 per widget = £14), but it is now seen more widely in email addresses and social media platform handles. The absence of a single English word for the symbol has prompted some writers to use the French ''arobase'' or Spanish and Portuguese ''arroba'', or to coin new words such as ''ampersat'' and ''asperand'', or the (visual) onomatopoeia '' strudel'', but none of these have achieved wide use. Although not included on the keyboard of the earliest commercially successful typewriters, it was on at least one 1889 model"The @-symbol, part 2 of 2" , [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Syllable (computing)
In computing, a syllable is a name for a platform-dependent unit of information storage. Depending on the target hardware, various bit widths (and sometimes internal groupings) are associated with it. Commonly used in the 1960s and 1970s, the term has mostly fallen into disuse in favour of terms like byte or word. Examples: * 3-bit syllables: some experimental CISC designs * 8-bit syllables: English Electric KDF9 (represented as syllabic octals and also called slob-octals or slobs in this context) and Burroughs large systems (see also: Burroughs B6x00-7x00 instruction set) * 12-bit syllables: NCR computers such as the NCR 315 (also called slabs in this context) and Burroughs large systems * 13-bit syllables: Saturn Launch Vehicle Digital Computer (LVDC) and Gemini Spacecraft On-Board Computer (OBC) See also * Byte * Catena (computing) * Instruction syllable * Nibble * Opcode * Opstring * Parcel (computing) * Syllable (in linguistics) * Word (computer architecture) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Word (data Type)
In computing, a word is the natural unit of data used by a particular processor design. A word is a fixed-sized datum handled as a unit by the instruction set or the hardware of the processor. The number of bits or digits in a word (the ''word size'', ''word width'', or ''word length'') is an important characteristic of any specific processor design or computer architecture. The size of a word is reflected in many aspects of a computer's structure and operation; the majority of the registers in a processor are usually word-sized and the largest datum that can be transferred to and from the working memory in a single operation is a word in many (not all) architectures. The largest possible address size, used to designate a location in memory, is typically a hardware word (here, "hardware word" means the full-sized natural word of the processor, as opposed to any other definition used). Documentation for older computers with fixed word size commonly states memory sizes in words ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byte
The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit of memory in many computer architectures. To disambiguate arbitrarily sized bytes from the common 8-bit definition, network protocol documents such as The Internet Protocol () refer to an 8-bit byte as an octet. Those bits in an octet are usually counted with numbering from 0 to 7 or 7 to 0 depending on the bit endianness. The first bit is number 0, making the eighth bit number 7. The size of the byte has historically been hardware-dependent and no definitive standards existed that mandated the size. Sizes from 1 to 48 bits have been used. The six-bit character code was an often-used implementation in early encoding systems, and computers using six-bit and nine-bit bytes were common in the 1960s. These systems often had memory wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exponent
Exponentiation is a mathematical operation, written as , involving two numbers, the '' base'' and the ''exponent'' or ''power'' , and pronounced as " (raised) to the (power of) ". When is a positive integer, exponentiation corresponds to repeated multiplication of the base: that is, is the product of multiplying bases: b^n = \underbrace_. The exponent is usually shown as a superscript to the right of the base. In that case, is called "''b'' raised to the ''n''th power", "''b'' (raised) to the power of ''n''", "the ''n''th power of ''b''", "''b'' to the ''n''th power", or most briefly as "''b'' to the ''n''th". Starting from the basic fact stated above that, for any positive integer n, b^n is n occurrences of b all multiplied by each other, several other properties of exponentiation directly follow. In particular: \begin b^ & = \underbrace_ \\ ex& = \underbrace_ \times \underbrace_ \\ ex& = b^n \times b^m \end In other words, when multiplying a base raised to one ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Significand
The significand (also mantissa or coefficient, sometimes also argument, or ambiguously fraction or characteristic) is part of a number in scientific notation or in floating-point representation, consisting of its significant digits. Depending on the interpretation of the exponent, the significand may represent an integer or a fraction. Example The number 123.45 can be represented as a decimal floating-point number with the integer 12345 as the significand and a 10−2 power term, also called characteristics, where −2 is the exponent (and 10 is the base). Its value is given by the following arithmetic: : 123.45 = 12345 × 10−2. The same value can also be represented in normalized form with 1.2345 as the fractional coefficient, and +2 as the exponent (and 10 as the base): : 123.45 = 1.2345 × 10+2. Schmid, however, called this representation with a significand ranging between 1.0 and 10 a modified normalized form. For base 2, this 1.xxxx form is also called a normaliz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Floating Point Format
In computing, floating-point arithmetic (FP) is arithmetic that represents real numbers approximately, using an integer with a fixed precision, called the significand, scaled by an integer exponent of a fixed base. For example, 12.345 can be represented as a base-ten floating-point number: 12.345 = \underbrace_\text \times \underbrace_\text\!\!\!\!\!\!^ In practice, most floating-point systems use base two, though base ten (decimal floating point) is also common. The term ''floating point'' refers to the fact that the number's radix point can "float" anywhere to the left, right, or between the significant digits of the number. This position is indicated by the exponent, so floating point can be considered a form of scientific notation. A floating-point system can be used to represent, with a fixed number of digits, numbers of very different orders of magnitude — such as the number of meters between galaxies or between protons in an atom. For this reason, floating-poi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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