> >> Are there any current architectures that directly support pointers to
> bits?
> >
> >I've never heard of one.
> The 8051 has bit address for its internal rgisters and some of its internal
> RAM.

True, for selected registers.

> The IAR (and mybe others too) C compiler  support this with bit pointers.

False.  The IAR compiler may support bit pointers, but not by the 8051's
bit-addressing mechanism.  All instructions that use bit addresses (as well
as all instructions that access I/O or special-register space) are restricted
to using absolute addresses [i.e. addresses stored directly in the code].
This restriction is in some ways a blessing, in others a curse [in particular,
it's a blessing because it limits the damage wild pointers can cause; it's a
curse because it prevents casting pointers to those things].  The blessings
from this 'feature' are limitted, however, by the fact that even devices with
internal ROM will try to run from external memory if program control goes out-
side the ROM space; by so doing they will thrash P0 and P2 wildly, and dep-
ending upon what appears on P0 they may also write who-knows-what to any of
the SFR's if the P0 values appear to be code...)