A 60-bit word is typically used for high-precision floating-point calculations; it can also store 10 6-bit characters.

Examples

The only widely-used computers with 60-bit

words A word is a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no conse ...

were produced by Control Data Corporation (CDC), including the

CDC 6000 The CDC 6000 series is a discontinued family of mainframe computers manufactured by Control Data Corporation in the 1960s. It consisted of the CDC 6200, CDC 6300, #Versions, CDC 6400, #Versions, CDC 6500, CDC 6600 and #Versions, CDC 6700 computers, ...

series, the

CDC 7600 The CDC 7600 was the Seymour Cray-designed successor to the CDC 6600, extending Control Data's dominance of the supercomputer field into the 1970s. The 7600 ran at 36.4 MHz (27.5 ns clock cycle) and had a 65 Kword primary memory (with a 6 ...

, and the CDC Cyber 70 and 170 series. Though the addressable unit was the 60-bit word, instructions were either 15 or 30 bits. Early design documents for the

IBM 7030 Stretch The IBM 7030, also known as Stretch, was IBM's first transistorized supercomputer. It was the fastest computer in the world from 1961 until the first CDC 6600 became operational in 1964."Designed by Seymour Cray, the CDC 6600 was almost three t ...

tentatively specified its word length as 60 bits; the final design used 64.Werner Buchholz, "Memory Word Length"
STRETCH Memo no. 40
July 31, 1956, archived at the Computer History Museum

Emulator

Museum examples of 60-bit CDC machines exist. There also exists an emulator for the series which will simulate the CDC 60-bit machines on commodity hardware and operating systems.

References

{{CPU technologies Data unit Control Data Corporation hardware