From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Mon, 3 Sep 2001 19:05:59 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Mon, 3 Sep 2001 19:05:49 -0400 Received: from chac.inf.utfsm.cl ([200.1.19.54]:4871 "EHLO chac.inf.utfsm.cl") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Mon, 3 Sep 2001 19:05:37 -0400 Message-Id: <200109031544.f83Fidbr002589@sleipnir.valparaiso.cl> To: "David S. Miller" cc: ak@suse.de, alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk, willy@debian.org, thunder7@xs4all.nl, parisc-linux@lists.parisc-linux.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [parisc-linux] documented Oops running big-endian reiserfs on parisc architecture In-Reply-To: Message from "David S. Miller" of "Mon, 03 Sep 2001 01:15:30 MST." <20010903.011530.62340995.davem@redhat.com> Date: Mon, 03 Sep 2001 11:44:39 -0400 From: Horst von Brand Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org "David S. Miller" said: > IP header length is measured in octets, so how is this possible? > :-) 1 octet == 8 bits in RFC-speak. "Byte" is the name given to character units. There were machines around with non-8-bit bytes. AFAIR, DEC PDP-10 had the options of 6, 7, or 8 bits/byte in 36 bit words. Purely historical now, since (AFAIK) everybody has agreed with IBM (S/360?) that 1 byte == 8 bits. As Brian Reid (IIRC) used to say: "It is spelled 'o-c-t-e-t' and pronounced 'byte'" -- Horst von Brand vonbrand@sleipnir.valparaiso.cl Casilla 9G, Vin~a del Mar, Chile +56 32 672616