Possibly the best-known 12-bit CPU is the PDP-8 and its relatives, such as the Intersil 6100 microprocessor produced in various forms from August 1963 to mid-1990. Many analog to digital converters (ADCs) have a 12-bit resolution. Some PIC microcontrollers use a 12-bit word size. 12 binary digits, or 3 nibbles (a 'tribble'), have 4096 (10000 octal, 1000 hexadecimal) distinct combinations. Hence, a microprocessor with 12-bit memory addresses can directly access 4096 words (4 kW) of word-addressable memory. At a time when six-bit character codes were common a 12-bit word, which could hold two characters, was a convenient size. IBM System/360 instruction formats use a 12-bit displacement field which, added to the contents of a base register, can address 4096 bytes of memory. List of 12-bit computer systems Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-5 PDP-8 DECmate, a personal computer based on the Intersil 6100 PDP-12 PDP-14 Ford EEC I automotive engine control unit Toshiba TLCS-12 microprocessor Intersil IM6100 microprocessor (PDP-8-compatible) Control Data Corporation CDC 160 series computers CDC 6600 - Peripheral Processor (PP) National Cash Register NCR 315 Scientific Data Systems SDS 92 Nuclear Data, Inc. ND812 PC12 minicomputer Ferranti Argus LINC, later commercialized by DEC as the LINC-8 Electronic Arrays 9002 (12-bit addressing but 8-bit byte) See also FAT12, a file system with 12-bit wide cluster entries References External links DIGITAL Computing Timeline: 12-bit architecture Computer data