[geeks] The topic for the day..

[der Mouse]

> Why is computer memory nowdays (at least in the "personal computer"
> field) measured in bytes and not words (as I've seen used in the "big
> iron" field)?

My guess: it is generally measured in addressing units.  This means
bytes on byte-addressed machines and words on word-addressed machines.

> For example, my OpenGenera screenshot shows its available memory in
> terms of megawords:

> http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3163/2502891680_22d67e80b3_b.jpg

Probably due to its Lisp Machine heritage; real Lisp Machines, AIUI,
were word-addressed.  I don't know enough about OpenGenera to know
whether it's a real virtual machine emulator the way the display
implies; if so, it will of course act like the machine being emulated;
if not, it's probably just easier to pretend.

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