• kglitch
    cake
    link
    fedilink
    1611 months ago

    The big shortcoming of 32 bit hardware was that it limits the amount of RAM in the computer to 4 GB. 64 bit is not inherently faster (for most things) but it enables up to 16 exabytes of RAM, an incomprehensible amount. Going to 128 bit would only be helpful if 16 exabytes wasn’t enough.

    • @FelipeFelop
      link
      711 months ago

      Slightly off topic, but the number of bits doesn’t necessarily describe the size of memory. For example most eight bit processors had 16bit data busses and address registers.

      Some processors that were 32 bits internally have 24bit memory addressing.