[ih] bytes [Re: "network unix"]

[jack at 3kitty.org (Jack Haverty)]

I also remember "octet" being used in those days.  Since "byte" was so
imprecise, "octet" was used to mean "8-bit byte".

That may seem to have solved the problem.  But, like atoms, octets were
not the most primitive element of computing (and networking).

Any contemporary history buff who is curious about the computing
environment in those early days as networking was being created -- I
highly recommend Danny Cohen's writeup " ON HOLY WARS AND A PLEA FOR
PEACE" in IEN 137 ( https://www.ietf.org/rfc/ien/ien137.txt )

How many bits were in a byte was just the tip of the iceberg annoying us
who were trying to get computers to talk with each other back then.  It
may seem obvious now that most computer makers have disappeared and
computing is rather uniform; it wasn't then...

/Jack


On 10/09/2016 01:27 PM, Scott O. Bradner wrote:
> fwiw - I DEC was using ?octet? with the PDP-1s and PDP-4s in the mid 1960s
> (for me it was 1966 with a PDP-4)
> 
> Scott
> 
>> On Oct 9, 2016, at 3:56 PM, Brian E Carpenter <brian.e.carpenter at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> On 10/10/2016 08:20, Scott O. Bradner wrote:
>>
>> ...
>>> PDP-11 were 16 bit words
>>
>> I think the byte stabilised at 8 bits in my mind because of
>> the PDP-11, rapidly followed by the Intel 8080 and Motorola 6800.
>> Looking at my 1971 PDP11/20-15-r20 processor handbook, it's unambiguous
>> that a byte is 8 bits and is the smallest addressable unit.
>>
>> (However, I think the question was really settled in April 1964
>> when the IBM 360 was announced. From then on, the 6 bit bytes were
>> survivors.)
>>
>> When did ISO start using "octet"?
>>
>>    Brian
>>
>>
>>
> 
> 
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