On 2021-09-28 2:24 p.m., Paul Koning wrote:
   My next
computer will be 44 bits, if I ever get the routing timing bugs out the FPGA
 prototype card. I can't change the FPGA vender because I can use TTL macros like
74181, for TTL bread boarding.
 With the 74181 I can have any width I want, thus I can play with odd sizes. 
 For extra credit, create a GCC back end for that design.  :-) 
 
Self-compile Small and Bootstrap seem to be forgotten words.
So is ASCII 69.   I wish they had <-  or -> arrow symbols to replace the
= 's for assignment.
  More I play with my designs, I come to the
conclusion that
 32 bits is not ample for a general purpose computer. 
 I think Von Neumann would agree; he picked 40 bits as I recall.  There are all sorts of
interesting word lengths out there; the strangest I've worked with is 27 bits
one's complement. 
 Was that a drum machime?
          paul
  
Ben.