Talk:16-bit

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Hello Friends.

Can any body explain a little that what is the basic difference between 16-bit and 32-bit words. I just want to know that what is the actual advantage of 32-bit word over 16-bit.

regards

Raheel

Sure.

It's basically like this. If the word size of a machine is 16-bit, then you can store at most 2^16 = 65536 different combinations in one word. These combinations are often taken to be the numbers 0 to 65535 or -32760 to 32759 or memory locations.

If you need larger numbers, or if you need to keep track of more data that needs more memory, you'll need to use two words.

Using two words for storing numbers increases the time it takes to do calculations with them. This is because instead of one operation to for instance add two numbers, more operations are needed.

If you use a 32-bit machine however, you can use 4294967296 different combinations. That means you can use a single word to contain larger numbers or references to a wider range of memory locations.

Therefore a 32-bit machine will perform better at the same clock speed, with the added bonus of making the lives of programmers easier. (The last bit has also got a lot to do with the way some processor manufacturers (Intel springs to mind) and OS developers (Microsoft for instance) chose to overcome the restrictions of 16-bit words.)

I hope this helps.

Yours sincerely,

Shinobu 07:12, 31 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] 16-bit DOS and Windows 1.0/2.0 applications

Those applications were 16-bit, not 8-bit. The 8088 was a processor with a 16-bit instruction set and an 8-bit bus; it's the instruction set, not the bus width, that matters to the "width" of applications. Guy Harris (talk) 18:56, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Memory Adressing

So how many kilobytes can 16 bit processor address?--169.232.119.28 (talk) 02:11, 1 May 2008 (UTC)