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16-bit Computing
16-bit microcomputers are microcomputers that use 16-bit microprocessors. A 16-bit register can store 216 different values. The range of integer values that can be stored in 16 bits depends on the integer representation used. With the two most common representations, the range is 0 through 65,535 (216 − 1) for representation as an ( unsigned) binary number, and −32,768 (−1 × 215) through 32,767 (215 − 1) for representation as two's complement. Since 216 is 65,536, a processor with 16-bit memory addresses can directly access 64 KB (65,536 bytes) of byte-addressable memory. If a system uses segmentation with 16-bit segment offsets, more can be accessed. 16-bit architecture The MIT Whirlwind ( 1951) was quite possibly the first-ever 16-bit computer. It was an unusual word size for the era; most systems used six-bit character code and used a word length of some multiple of 6-bits. This changed with the effort to introduce ASCII, which used a 7-bit code and naturall ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Octet (computing)
The octet is a unit of digital information in computing and telecommunications that consists of eight bits. The term is often used when the term byte might be ambiguous, as the byte has historically been used for storage units of a variety of sizes. The term ''octad(e)'' for eight bits is no longer common. Definition The international standard IEC 60027-2, chapter 3.8.2, states that a byte is an octet of bits. However, the unit byte has historically been platform-dependent and has represented various storage sizes in the history of computing. Due to the influence of several major computer architectures and product lines, the byte became overwhelmingly associated with eight bits. This meaning of ''byte'' is codified in such standards as ISO/IEC 80000-13. While ''byte'' and ''octet'' are often used synonymously, those working with certain legacy systems are careful to avoid ambiguity. Octets can be represented using number systems of varying bases such as the hexadec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
IBM 1130
The IBM 1130 Computing System, introduced in 1965, was IBM's least expensive computer at that time. A binary 16-bit machine, it was marketed to price-sensitive, computing-intensive technical markets, like education and engineering, succeeding the decimal IBM 1620 in that market segment. Typical installations included a 1 megabyte disk drive that stored the operating system, compilers and object programs, with program source generated and maintained on punched cards. Fortran was the most common programming language used, but several others, including APL, were available. The 1130 was also used as an intelligent front-end for attaching an IBM 2250 Graphics Display Unit, or as remote job entry (RJE) workstation, connected to a System/360 mainframe. Description The total production run of the 1130 has been estimated at 10,000. The 1130 holds a place in computing history because it (and its non-IBM clones) gave many people their first direct interaction with a computer. Its pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ferranti F100-L
The Ferranti F100-L was a 16-bit microprocessor family announced by Ferranti in 1976 which entered production in 1977. It was the first microprocessor designed in Europe, and among the first 16-bit single-chip CPUs. It was designed with military use in mind, able to work in a very wide temperature range and radiation hardened. To deliver these capabilities, the F100 was implemented using bipolar junction transistors, as opposed to the metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) process used by most other processors of the era. The family included a variety of support chips including a multiply/divide unit, various memory support chips, timers and serial bus controllers. The F100 was priced at £39 in 1978 in 100-off quantities. Three models were offered at the same price; the commercial spec was rated at 8 MHz, industrial at 6.5 MHz at an extended temperature range, and military spec at 3.5 or 5 MHz with a temperature range from -55 C to +125 C. It was very cost compe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Texas Instruments TMS9900
Introduced in June 1976, the TMS9900 was one of the first commercially available, single-chip 16-bit microprocessors. It implemented Texas Instruments' TI-990 minicomputer architecture in a single-chip format, and was initially used for low-end models of that lineup. Its 64-pin DIP format made it more expensive to implement in smaller machines than the more common 40-pin format, and it saw relatively few design wins outside TI's own use. Among those uses was their TI-99/4 and TI-99/4A home computers, which ultimately sold about 2.8 million units. Microcomputer-on-chip implementations of the 9900 in 40-pin packages included the TMS9940, TMS9980/81, TMS9995. The TMS99105/10 was the last iteration of the 9900 in 1981 and incorporated features of TI's 990/10 minicomputer. By the mid-1980s the microcomputer field was moving to 16-bit systems like the Intel 8088 and newer 16/32-bit designs like the Motorola 68000. With no obvious future for the chip, TI turned its attention to speci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
General Instrument CP1600
The CP1600 is a 16-bit microprocessor created in a partnership between General Instrument and Honeywell, introduced in February 1975. It is one of the first single-chip 16-bit processors. The overall design bore a strong resemblance to the PDP-11. Honeywell used the CP1600 in a number of process control computers and related systems, but its most widespread use was the CP1610 version in the Intellivision video game console. The system saw little other use due to General Instrument's marketing philosophy of seeking out customers only with very large orders and ignoring smaller customers. They also did not pursue a second source arrangement, which in the early days of microprocessor designs was a requirement for most potential customers. Description Physical implementation The CP1600 was implemented in enhancement mode nMOS and required +12, +5, -3 V power supplies; I/O connections except for the clocks were TTL (5 V) compatible. Each microstate or processor cycle use ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Semiconductor PACE
National Semiconductor's IPC-16A PACE, short for "Processing and Control Element", was the first commercial single-chip 16-bit microprocessor, announced in late 1974. It was a single-chip implementation of their early 1973 five-chip IMP-16 architecture, which in turn had been inspired by the Data General Nova minicomputer. To the basic IMP-16, PACE added a new operational mode, "byte mode", which was useful for working with 8-bit data like ASCII text. Implemented in pMOS, as was common for the era, PACE required three supply voltages and an external clock with enough signal to drive the internal logic. This was normally supplied by the STE chip. Most PACE systems also required the BTE chip to convert the higher internal voltage signals to TTL levels used by the rest of the system. Its multiplexed address and data pins also required additional logic. Although National Semiconductor had second source agreements with Signetics and Rockwell Semiconductor, neither company produced ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Panafacom
Panafacom was a Japanese microprocessor design firm formed on 2 July 1973 by a consortium including Fujitsu, Fuji Electric and Matsushita (Panasonic). The company was formed to design and manufacture the MN1610, a 16-bit microprocessor. It was released in April 1975, beating the Texas Instruments TMS9900 to become the world's first single-chip 16-bit microprocessor. The design saw relatively little use and remains largely unknown in the computer field. In 1987, Panafacom was merged with USAC Electronic Industrial to form today's PFU Limited is a Japanese information technology company. The company was formed by the merger of Panafacom and USAC Electronic Industrial in 1987. As of 2019, PFU focuses on computing and IT consulting. Its product line includes image scanners, embedded .... References External links L-16A CPU A description (in Japanese) of the MN1610 processor. A description (in Japanese) of the MN1613 processor. {{corp-stub 16-bit microprocessors ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toshiba
, commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, elevators and escalators, electronic components, semiconductors, hard disk drives (HDD), printers, batteries, lighting, as well as IT solutions such as quantum cryptography which has been in development at Cambridge Research Laboratory, Toshiba Europe, located in the United Kingdom, now being commercialised. It was one of the biggest manufacturers of personal computers, consumer electronics, home appliances, and medical equipment. As a semiconductor company and the inventor of flash memory, Toshiba had been one of the top 10 in the chip industry until its flash memory unit was spun off as Toshiba Memory, later Kioxia, in the late 2010s. The Toshiba name is derived from its former name, Tokyo Shibaura Denki K.K. (Tokyo Shibaura Electri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MCP-1600
The MCP-1600 is a multi-chip 16-bit microprocessor introduced by Western Digital in 1975 and produced through the early 1980s. Used in the Pascal MicroEngine, the WD16 processor in the Alpha Microsystems AM-100, and the DEC LSI-11 microcomputer, a cost-reduced and compact implementation of the DEC PDP-11. Description There are three types of chips in the chip-set: * CP1611 RALU - Register ALU chip * CP1621 CON - Control chip * CP1631 MICROM - Mask-programmed microcode ROM chip (512 – 22 bit words) The chips use a 3.3 MHz four phase clock and three power supply voltages (+5V, +12V, and -5V), as required by the N-channel silicon gate process then available at Western Digital. Internally the MCP-1600 is a (relatively fast) 8-bit processor that can be micro-programmed to emulate a 16-bit CPU. All byte operations execute in one clock period; word operations and branches take two clocks. Up to four MICROMs are supported, but usually two or three could hold the needed m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CRC Press
The CRC Press, LLC is an American publishing group that specializes in producing technical books. Many of their books relate to engineering, science and mathematics. Their scope also includes books on business, forensics and information technology. CRC Press is now a division of Taylor & Francis, itself a subsidiary of Informa. History The CRC Press was founded as the Chemical Rubber Company (CRC) in 1903 by brothers Arthur, Leo and Emanuel Friedman in Cleveland, Ohio, based on an earlier enterprise by Arthur, who had begun selling rubber laboratory aprons in 1900. The company gradually expanded to include sales of laboratory equipment to chemists. In 1913 the CRC offered a short (116-page) manual called the ''Rubber Handbook'' as an incentive for any purchase of a dozen aprons. Since then the ''Rubber Handbook'' has evolved into the CRC's flagship book, the ''CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics''. In 1964, Chemical Rubber decided to focus on its publishing ventures, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
IMP-16
The IMP-16, by National Semiconductor, was the first multi-chip 16-bit microprocessor, released in 1973. It consisted of five PMOS integrated circuits: four identical RALU chips, short for register and ALU, providing the data path, and one CROM, Control and ROM, providing control sequencing and microcode storage. The IMP-16 is a bit-slice processor; each RALU chip provides a 4-bit slice of the register and arithmetic that work in parallel to produce a 16-bit word length. Each RALU chip stores its own 4 bits of the program counter, several registers, the ALU, a 16-word LIFO stack, and status flags. There were four 16-bit accumulators, two of which could be used as index registers. The instruction set architecture was similar to that of the Data General Nova. The chip set could be extended with the CROM chip (IMP-16A / 522D) that implemented 16-bit multiply and divide routines. The chipset was driven by a two-phase 715 kHz non-overlapping clock that had a +5 to -12 voltage ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microprocessor
A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circuitry required to perform the functions of a computer's central processing unit. The integrated circuit is capable of interpreting and executing program instructions and performing arithmetic operations. The microprocessor is a multipurpose, clock-driven, register-based, digital integrated circuit that accepts binary data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and provides results (also in binary form) as output. Microprocessors contain both combinational logic and sequential digital logic, and operate on numbers and symbols represented in the binary number system. The integration of a whole CPU onto a single or a few integrated circuits using Very-Large-Scale Integration (VLSI) greatly reduced the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
