Compile times depend really on the I/O used, packing and unpacking would be used on character strings
only. I am assumimg ample RAM for the user programs here,none of this Kb measurement, or multi pass
compiles do to lack of space.
The protype version is just 36 bit data, and later to have two data types, word 36 bits and char 9 bits.
The FPGA PDP-4
http://fpgaretrocomputing.org/pdp4x/had used 18 bit wide memory, and I was thinking
of using the same product, but I could not find the chip was used, so I have it designed now using 8 bit parts and data types of word, and half word.
Ben.
PS: Ebay has a few but expensive.