hiltwisdom.blogg.se - Are alpha bits still made

Are alpha bits still made movie#
Are alpha bits still made software#
Are alpha bits still made series#
Are alpha bits still made tv#

8-bit ASCII was introduced in 1969, in anticipation of the inevitable change coming to the computing landscape.

Are alpha bits still made software#

6-bit characters were good enough for FORTRAN and COBOL, who would need more, right?Īs the 1960s drew to a close, the advent of lower-cost transistors, integrated circuits and semiconductor memories made scrambling for bits become less important, while machine elegance and software development costs became more important. Why did they do this? Memory and datapath hardware were very, very expensive back in the 1960s and early 70s, so saving bits helped keep the machine costs down. Many of these 1960s-era mainframes were 36 bits (like that DEC-10), which is a big enough word for large-ish floating point numbers.

Nevertheless there were earlier machines (like the one I learnt FORTRAN on, the DECSystem-10) that used 6-bit characters and shortened character coding. Enough bits to hold a Latin upper- and lowercase alphabet (e.g.In modern machines, 8 bits satisfies two basic requirements: It does this by making the fewest possible interconnects between the elements of the CPU. So 8-bits per byte and using the same memory for program and data storage is the least complex way to implement a CPU that yields "good enough" performance. They have different number of bits for instruction words, ALU data, and call stacks. One of the most popular (cheapest) controller architectures is the Microchip PIC family. Many architectures are implemented with multiple data paths within the CPU so that the source and destination objects can be accessed at the same instant. Because it was IBM it was easier to make yours compatible than to risk being shutout of government contracts like UNIVAC or Burroughs by not working like the IBM. 8-bits per byte became a de-facto standard with the IBM System 360. PDP8 has a 12 bit word and does not use 8-bit bytes at all. The Fujitsu FACOM 128, one is still operational, uses 5 bits as a byte to represent one decimal digit. Sixty years ago electromechanical was the leading edge because everything else was too unreliable. It wasn't always like this and in the future binary as a basis for digital computing may be as out of date as vacuum tubes and electromechanical step relays are today. In season 2 of Everybody Loves Raymond, Frank says to Raymond "I could have eaten a box of Alpha-bits and crapped a better interview.Your question has a lot of hidden assumptions about CPU architecture.Ī study of the way ancient computers were designed can reveal quite a bit about why such choices are made today.Īs to why there are 8 bits in a byte comes down to technical inertia and good enough.

This cereal is seen in Pretty Little Liars when Emily pours it in her bowl to discover it's all A's.

He is seen pouring milk and Alpha Bits into his mouth.

This cereal appears in Diary of a Wimpy Kid where Greg rushed to breakfast in the beginning.

In the Eric's Depression episode of That '70s Show, Eric is eating Alpha-Bits and as he takes the first bite, he notices the letters spell out "DONNA.".

In the All Grown Up! episode "Interview With a Campfire", Tommy says "Coming from the man who communicates with aliens in the Alpha-Bits commercial".

Are alpha bits still made movie#

This cereal can be seen in the 2003 movie Anger Management.

A visibly annoyed Brian looks up from his newspaper and points out that they are actually Cheerios.

An episode of Family Guy features a cutaway gag where Peter and Brian are sitting at the kitchen table Peter is eating a bowl of breakfast cereal and suddenly tells Brian that there's a message in his Alpha-Bits which simply says "Ooooo".

Are alpha bits still made tv#

In a sponsor spot for the TV sitcom ' The Andy Griffith Show, Andy advertises post Alpha-bits through a swearing-in of deputy Barney Fife before saying his famous trademark line "I appreciate it and goodnight".Alpha-Bits, you know you want them, come and have some!.And O G, they simply happen to be a little bit better!) They're A-B-C-Delicious! (Alpha-Bits spell energy from A to Z with a capital E.Tastiest cereal you've ever met-it's just like eating up the alphabet! The TV show Super Why! currently mascots and endorses this cereal. Post Alpha-Bits cereal was also a sponsor of Arthur on PBS.

Are alpha bits still made series#

Michael Jackson and The Jackson 5 starred in a series of Alpha-Bits musical TV commercials in 1973. In the 1980s there was yet another mascot named Alfie the Alpha-Bits Cereal Wonder Dog.