From: david.brown@hesbynett.no   
      
   On 21/12/2025 02:55, Keith Thompson wrote:   
   > Kaz Kylheku <046-301-5902@kylheku.com> writes:   
   >> On 2025-12-18, Keith Thompson  wrote:   
   >>> BGB  writes:   
   >>> [...]   
   >>>> There are no "true" 8 bit systems in this sense, as pretty much every   
   >>>> existing 8-bit CPU has had support for 16-bit operations in some way,   
   >>>> though often by using register pairs.   
   >>>   
   >>> I vaguely recall reading about a true 8-bit system, maybe from the 1950s   
   >>> or so.   
   >>   
   >> Any guitar pedal with an electronic bypass toggle is a 1 bit system.   
   >   
   > But not a 1-bit computer.   
   >   
   > The system I referred to above was an actual computer with 8 bits of   
   > storage.   
   >   
      
   Do you really mean a total of 8 bits of storage, or do you mean storage   
   addressable by 8 bits (thus avoiding the need for any 16-bit registers   
   or other registers bigger than 8 bits) ?   
      
   With only 8 bits of storage, you are basically talking about a simple   
   programmable state machine or programmable logic, not a programmable   
   computer.  (There are programmable logic devices available with such   
   small numbers of storage bits - the GreenPAK family is perhaps the best   
   example.)   
      
   The smallest device I programmed in C had no ram at all, but it had 32   
   8-bit registers, a three-entry return stack, 32 bytes of eeprom (IIRC),   
   and I think 1k x 16-bit flash for the program.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)