Advent of Computing (adventofcomputing@bitbang.social)'s status on Thursday, 09-Mar-2023 18:42:56 JST

@tobyjaffey @b0rk I've been summoned! I'm also a little perplexed by the standardization on 8-bit bytes in the x86 architecture specifically. Since the 8086 was initially a stop-gap project we don't have super super good details on it's development history. That said, I think the place to look is the 8008. That chip was designed as part of a contract for CTC, which was a terminal company. The 8008 would have powered the Datapoint 2200. That machine called for 8-bit bytes:
https://history-computer.com/Library/2200_Reference_Manual.pdf