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::Yes it is strange. Bytecode should apply to any byte oriented instruction encoding, back to (as far as I know) IBM System/360. An important idea behind S/360 was the low-end microcoded machines. That is, ones that interpret the instructions in software. Before S/360, the IBM scientific machines used 36 bit words. Not so many years later, we have VAX, again byte oriented and designed for microcoded processors that interpret the byte codes. VAX followed DEC 36 bit machines, such as the PDP-10. (Seems to be a pattern here.) Once byte addressable machines became popular, byte oriented intermediate code became popular for many different cases. Even more, early in the Java years, Sun had designed and built hardware for running JVM! [[User:Gah4|Gah4]] ([[User talk:Gah4|talk]]) 18:42, 11 August 2025 (UTC)
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::But okay, MIX. MIX is designed to be either binary or decimal, such that properly written programs run in either case. Assuming ''byte'' means eight-bit unit, I think that disqualifies MIX. But the idea isn't so far off. Back to the years close to the beginning of MIX, decimal machines were not so rare for commercial processors. I suspect, though, that Knuth was trying to get people to think more generally. [[User:Gah4|Gah4]] ([[User talk:Gah4|talk]]) 18:47, 11 August 2025 (UTC)
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