Because it is the most convenient byte size, considering that computers are binary.
I did once, in 1963, work on a computer with a byte size of 15, but I don't think it was very convenient for textual data. We packed two 6 bit BCD characters in each byte. Before that I worked on a computer with a word size of 48 bits, and we packed eight 6 bit BCD characters in each word. Only slightly less inconvenient. And getting the text to include Hebrew and English required additional information, not directly encoded.
Thank goodness we are where we are today with Unicode.
Jony
> -----Original Message-----
> From: unicode-bounce_at_unicode.org [mailto:unicode-bounce_at_unicode.org] On
> Behalf Of anbu_at_peoplestring.com
> Sent: Monday, June 27, 2011 8:54 PM
> To: unicode_at_unicode.org
> Subject: 8 bits preference?
>
> Why are codes preferred in multiples of 8?
>
> Anbu
Received on Mon Jun 27 2011 - 14:59:22 CDT
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