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Although Standard Fortran only provides the above six data types, many
systems provide additional ones. You may come across data type names such
as: LOGICAL*1, INTEGER*2, REAL*8, COMPLEX*16,
etc. The number after the asterisk indicates the number of bytes of
storage used for each datum (a byte being a group of 8 bits). This
notation has a certain logic but is totally non-standard. The use of a
term like REAL*8 when it is simply a synonym for DOUBLE
PRECISION seems particularly pointless. There are, of course,
circumstances when types such as COMPLEX*16 are necessary but the
price to be paid is the loss of portability.
Helen Rowlands
8/27/1998