[geeks] The topic for the day..

[Anthony Ortenzi]

Bill Bradford asked:
> 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)?

Word size is a function of the processor, and not of the memory itself.

On "big iron", you're often including constraints (whether explicit or
implicit) to frame the conversation in a context... but in the "personal
computer" field, we've seen memory usable on, for example, either a 32-bit
or 64-bit word size CPU.  It seems far simpler to market the DIMM in a
context-independent unit than have multiple designations.

-Anthony