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

[Prescott K. Turner]

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?

A couple of years ago I attended a presentation by Prof. William Kahan 
of U.C. Berkeley.  He had an HP calculator with him which as I recall
adhered to the IEEE 854 standard for floating point using _decimal_.
An example of decimal integers would be better in some ways, but given
the stringent rounding requirements of the IEEE floating point standards,
this calculator's essence could only be called decimal.

--
Prescott K. Turner, Jr.
Software Development Technologies, Inc.
375 Dutton Rd., Sudbury, MA 01776 USA        (508) 443-5779
UUCP:genrad!mrst!sdti!turner