Re: you never know when your SSD might be used in a time machine.
in early machines
The As/400IBM i series still does it and it's inherent in EBCDIC[1] systems. I also used to think it was an "old" thing, until I found out that INFORMIX stores its decimal data types the same way.
Subsequent investigation showed that this is still a common storage method where fixed numeric precision is critical. That's pretty much anywhere where the numbers represent money.
[1] Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code
Biting the hand that feeds IT
