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@vertigo @b0rk @palin In early days of electronic computing there used to be having various sizes like 12 bit, 36 bits, etc. Then IBM rolled out the seminal computer called S/360 which standardized on the 8-bit, 16-bit, etc. as groups of bits. That has a huge influence on the subsequent development The 4004 used 4-bit since it was hard to develop more complicated circuitry on silicon back then; besides it was meant for use in calculator (speed isn't important...humans are slow! ?)

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_System/360#Influential_features

See also https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/15305/why-did-ibm-7030-or-ibm-360-use-byte-and-word-addressing-simultaneously