non-binary hardware (was: Absolute size of 'short')

[Larry Miller]

In article <297 at sdti.UUCP> turner at sdti.UUCP (Prescott K. Turner, Jr.) writes:
>In article <1285 at mcgill-vision.UUCP> mouse at mcgill-vision.UUCP (der Mouse)
>writes:
>>By the way, does anyone know of a non-mechanical digital calculator or
>>computer that isn't essentially binary?
>
    There was also the IBM 1620, a BCD machine.  Yes, decimal, but
    all arithmetic was performed using table lookup, floating point
    in software, so I guess it could be called a nonbinary machine.

Larry Miller				lmiller at venera.isi.edu (no uucp)
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