The AN/UYK-8 used the same 30 bit word and instruction set of the AN/USQ-17 and AN/USQ-20 Navy Tactical Data System (NTDS) computers, but could have two processors instead of just one.
Instructions were represented as 30 bit words, in the following format:
f 6 bits function code
j 3 bits jump condition designator
k 3 bits partial word designator
b 3 bits which index register to use
y 15 bits operand address in memory
Numbers were represented as 30 bit words, this allowed for five 6 bit alphanumeric characters per word.
The main memory was increased to 262,144 words of core memory.
The available registers were:
- one 30 bit arithmetic (A) register.
- a contiguous 30 bit Q register (total of 60 bits for the result of multiplication or the dividend in division).
- seven 15 bit index (B) registers.
