ZOZ instruction format - page 1

A ZOZ datum is a single number, with no limit to its size. It can be as short as one digit or as long as a zillion digits.

We represent ZOZ numbers as variable length strings of 16-bit words in big-endian order. A number which requires K binary bits is represented as a string of N words, where N = K/16, rounded up.

We preface this string with two words of metadata: its size (N), and a 16-bit checksum (CRC) of the string, like this:

   N , checksum , datum word 1 , ... , datum word N

In this manner we can represent a datum of up to N = 2^16-1 words or about 1 million bits or about 315,000 decimal digits. (Not quite a "zillion" digits, but we could extend this format indefinitely with a simple tweak, if desired).