Why are computers byte?oriented?
What will be an ideal response?
There is no logical reason – it is a matter of custom and historical development. During the development of computers many different wordlengths were used. Some early computers actually had a 6?bit byte. First-generation microprocessors had 8?bit data registers. 8 bits were called bytes. By using the byte as a basic unit of data it means that 16, 32, and 64?bit addresses fit exactly in an integer number of bytes (which is, of course, why we choose these address widths). If an address were 34 bits wide in a byte?oriented world, then it would require a 40?bit word of 5 bytes to store the address with 6 bits unused.
More importantly, a byte is 8, bits which is 
and that fits well in a binary word. Another reason for employing an 8?bit byte is that it allows 
different characters which fit in well with the extended ASCII character set.
I sometime wonder whether the basic unit of data in a computer should have been 12 bits. That would permit a
wider range of representation using the basic unit 
which would have provided for (a) greater precision in simple calculations and (b) a greater ability to encode alphabets. Moreover, a 12?bit unit would allow a feasible address in simple control applications (4K locations), whereas an 8?bit unit has to be used to create a 16?bit address.
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What will be an ideal response?
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