The DECSYSTEM-20 was a family of 36-bit Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-10 mainframe computers running the TOPS-20 operating system and was introduced in 1977.
DECSYSTEM-20 KL-10 (1974) at the Living Computer Museum
DECSYSTEM-2020 front panel
2 DECSYSTEM-2020 KS-10s (1979) at the Living Computer Museum
Introduction and Reference Card for the DECSYSTEM-20 at Columbia University, 1980. The DECSYSTEM-20 was the mainstay of computing at Columbia from 1977 through 1988.
In computer architecture, 36-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are 36 bits wide. Also, 36-bit central processing unit (CPU) and arithmetic logic unit (ALU) architectures are those that are based on registers, address buses, or data buses of that size.
36-bit computers were popular in the early mainframe computer era from the 1950s through the early 1970s.
Friden mechanical calculator. The electronic computer word length of 36-bits was chosen, in part, to match its precision.