16 lines
869 B
Plaintext
16 lines
869 B
Plaintext
dread high-bit disease
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n. A condition endemic to some now-obsolete computers and peripherals
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(including ASR-33 teletypes and PRIME minicomputers) that results in all
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characters having their high (0x80) bit forced on. This of course makes
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transporting files to other systems much more difficult, not to mention the
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problems these machines have talking with true 8-bit devices. This term was
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originally used specifically of PRIME (a.k.a. PR1ME) minicomputers. Folklore
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has it that PRIME adopted the reversed-8-bit convention in order to save 25
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cents per serial line per machine; PRIME old-timers, on the other hand,
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claim they inherited the disease from Honeywell via customer NASA's
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compatibility requirements and struggled heroically to cure it. Whoever was
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responsible, this probably qualifies as one of the most cretinous design
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tradeoffs ever made. See meta bit.
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