On the lighter side U may not know what it is if U have not paid for it......else U are such a rich fellow counting 'bits' - why?
On the other side of coin U may see
1. This is the most basic spec of the computing "Machines" , MHz and GHz are secondary, temperature, humidity are tertiary and so on....
2. U may clearly see that it defines / limits capability of machine ...OK think 2 bit machine and then 8 bit machine, got some hang of it.....but U may not find the clear difference between 32 bit and 64 bit machines...That is because the real potential of 64 bit machines it not yet harnessed and presented to us as 32 bit machines have demonstrated in our life over 16 bit machines.
2. This is the width of data and thus addressability that the basic frame of the machine (core / CPU) will handle, naturally/natively. Everything else will have to be through emulation.
3. Handling of data and instruction of lower width (say 16bit) is easily possible and useful for compatibility therefore worthy on a higher width (say 32 bit); but not worth beyond one order of legacy.
4. Handling of data and instructions of higher order (say 64bit) though not entirely impossible (at least theoretically) on a lower order "machine" (say 32bit) but is not worth the effort and therefore not available. (I wonder why I wrote this... it is not worth even this effort, I shall not discuss it).
5. Why 64bit is slow to find its home in our world......The reason is that - The number of instructions (lowest level computer command set) does not fit in the scope of 16 bit but they are not more than the scope 32 bit. There is scope to expand the scope of 64 bit instruction set and therefore there will be inventions/major development. But there is need to handle more data faster - bingo - 64 bit helps and here it is. There is need for parallel instruction execution - OK but with limited gains.
On 11/16/05, Mike McCarty <mike.mccarty@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> wrote:
Gerhard Magnus wrote:
> Hello All,
>
> I don't know if there's a short answer to this... but what do "32 bit"
> and "64 bit" refer to and how can I tell which applies to my computer?
>
> Jerry
Modern PC style computers all are binary. (Most calculators are
decimal.) The word "bit" is a contraction of "binary digit".
All computers have a natural word size, measured in digits.
This is the size of word which the computer can use without
special software. If the natural size of a computer word is
8 bits, then it is called an 8 bit computer. Examples are the
8080, Z80, 68HC11, and so on. Computers whose natural word
size is 16 bits are the 8086, Z8000, 68000, etc. The 80386
and later 80x86 machines up through the Pentium class machines
were all 32 bit machines. Now, some machines have a natural
word size of 64 bits.
The only way to tell is to know what the processor chip is.
Mike
--
p="p=%c%s%c;main(){printf(p,34,p,34);}";main(){printf(p,34,p,34);}
This message made from 100% recycled bits.
You have found the bank of Larn.
I can explain it for you, but I can't understand it for you.
I speak only for myself, and I am unanimous in that!
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