[valenciarose]

You assume all bytes are eight bits, but that hasn’t always been the case. Machines with variable byte sizes were relatively common in the 70s and early 80s. This is why so many RFCs use the word octet instead of byte.

[hilbert42]

Yeah, and I also remember when real parity checking was replaced with a special pseudo parity-pretend chip on many SIM modules. It was so designed to especially fool motherboards into thinking that parity was actually enabled and working when it was not.

Yes, even the memory business had its sleazy carpetbaggers.

[bzbarsky]

Even now there are hardware architectures with non-8-bit bytes, typically DSPs.

[rbanffy]

I remember that. A 36 bit computer makes no sense until you realize people used octal a lot back then. And grouped switches in 3's instead of 4's.