Re: exotic CPU hardware

[Bruno Haible]

Paul Eggert wrote:
> update it to mention two current platforms where sizeof(size_t) == 
> sizeof(ptrdiff_t) but index arithmetic does not behave in the usual way

Are these *current* platforms? The currently sold Unisys ClearPath Dorado
machines contain Xeon processors.

No one is manufacturing CPUs with 36 bit or 48 bit word size nowadays; if
some company offers such things, it must be an ASIC or FPGA, and then they
cannot achieve CPU clocks in the 100 MHz or even GHz range.

Note that in the 1970ies the floating-point capabilities were also odd.
With a floating point addition that rounds towards zero, not round-to-even,
programming a decent numerical integration routine was not easy... Then
came IEEE 754 and 854, which we can fortunately rely upon, nowadays.

Bruno