Part of the story. US, Japanese and European telco manufacturers had
different perceptions of 'optimal' atm cell size. Depending upon the mix
voice/video/data different results were obtained; believe 32 and 64 byte
were mentioned. The powers that be decided upon a compromise and chose a
value 'in the middle' causing everyone to redesign their equipment. The
compromise value was not a power of two. Must have been '89 or
thereabouts.
Yep...Microprocessors and powers of two don't have any special
relationship. Could the ITU really put politics over technical
requirements? Gee, sounds like a good orginization to help out with
the DNS.
(Yeah, I know, I know. The ITU is "better" now.)
pbd