| Processors | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4-bit | 8-bit | 12-bit | 16-bit | 18-bit | 24-bit | 31-bit | 32-bit | 36-bit | 48-bit | 64-bit | 128-bit |
| Applications | |||||||||||
| 8-bit | 16-bit | 31-bit | 32-bit | 64-bit | |||||||
| Data Sizes | |||||||||||
| 4-bit | 8-bit | 16-bit | 32-bit | 64-bit | 128-bit | ||||||
| nibble byte octet word dword qword | |||||||||||
In computer architecture, 64-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are at most 64 bits (8 octets) wide. The Intel 4004, the world's first commercially available single- chip Microprocessor, was a 4-bit CPU. Eight-bit CPUs normally use an 8-bit data bus and a 16-bit address bus which means that their Address space is limited to 64 KBs This is not a "natural Possibly the most well-known 18-bit computer architectures are the PDP-1, PDP-4, PDP-7, PDP-9 and PDP-15 Minicomputers produced The IBM System/360, announced in 1964, was an extremely popular computer system with 24-bit addressing and 32-bit general registers and arithmetic Perhaps the only computing architecture based on 31-bit addressing is one of computing's most famous and most profitable The range of Integer values that can be stored in 32 bits is 0 through 4294967295 or −2147483648 through 2147483647 using Two's complement encoding Many early computers aimed at the scientific market had a 36- Bit word length. Computers with 48-bit words include CDC 1604 and BESM-6. The IBM AS/400, in its CISC variants is a 48-bit addressing system A 32-bit application is Software that runs in a 32-bit flat Address space (a Flat memory model) A nibble (often nybble) is the Computing term for a four- Bit aggregation or half an octet (an octet being an 8-bit Byte A byte (pronounced "bite" baɪt is the basic unit of measurement of information storage in Computer science. A nibble (often nybble) is the Computing term for a four- Bit aggregation or half an octet (an octet being an 8-bit Byte A byte (pronounced "bite" baɪt is the basic unit of measurement of information storage in Computer science. In Computing, an octet is a grouping of eight Bits Octet, with the only exception noted below always refers to an entity having exactly eight In Computing, " word " is a term for the natural unit of data used by a particular computer design In Computing, " word " is a term for the natural unit of data used by a particular computer design In Computing, " word " is a term for the natural unit of data used by a particular computer design In Computer engineering, computer architecture is the conceptual design and fundamental operational structure of a Computer system In computer science the term integer is used to refer to a Data type which represents some finite subset of the mathematical Integers These are also known as In Computer science, a memory address is an identifier for a memory location at which a Computer program or a hardware device can store a piece of data Debt AIDS Trade in Africa (or DATA) is a Multinational non-government organization founded in January 2002 in London by U2 's A bit is a binary digit, taking a value of either 0 or 1 Binary digits are a basic unit of Information storage and communication In Computing, an octet is a grouping of eight Bits Octet, with the only exception noted below always refers to an entity having exactly eight Also, 64-bit CPU and ALU architectures are those that are based on registers, address buses, or data buses of that size. In Computing, an arithmetic logic unit ( ALU) is a Digital circuit that performs Arithmetic and Logical operations In Computer engineering, computer architecture is the conceptual design and fundamental operational structure of a Computer system In Computer architecture, a processor register is a small amount of storage available on the CPU whose contents can be accessed more quickly than storage An address bus is a Computer bus, controlled by CPUs or DMA -capable Peripherals for specifying the Physical addresses of computer In Computer architecture, a bus is a subsystem that transfers data between computer components inside a Computer or between computers
64-bit CPUs have existed in supercomputers since the 1960s and in RISC-based workstations and servers since the early 1990s. A supercomputer is a Computer that is at the frontline of processing capacity particularly speed of calculation (at the time of its introduction The 1960s decade refers to the years from the beginning of 1960 to the end of 1969 A workstation, such as a Unix workstation, RISC workstation or Engineering workstation, is a high-end Microcomputer A server is a Computer dedicated to providing one or more services over a computer network typically through a request-response routine The 1990s collectively refers to the years between and including 1990 and 1999 In 2003 they were introduced to the (previously 32-bit) mainstream personal computer arena, in the form of the x86-64 and 64-bit PowerPC processor architectures. Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. The range of Integer values that can be stored in 32 bits is 0 through 4294967295 or −2147483648 through 2147483647 using Two's complement encoding A personal computer ( PC) is any Computer whose original sales price size and capabilities make it useful for individuals and which is intended to be operated x86-64 is a Superset of the x86 instruction set architecture. PowerPC is a RISC Instruction set architecture created by the 1991 Apple – IBM – Motorola alliance known as AIM
A CPU that is 64-bit internally might have external data buses or address buses with a different size, either larger or smaller; the term "64-bit" is often used to describe the size of these buses as well. In Computer architecture, a bus is a subsystem that transfers data between computer components inside a Computer or between computers An address bus is a Computer bus, controlled by CPUs or DMA -capable Peripherals for specifying the Physical addresses of computer For instance, many current machines with 32-bit processors use 64-bit buses (e. g. the original Pentium and later CPUs), and may occasionally be referred to as "64-bit" for this reason. The Pentium brand refers to Intel 's single-core x86 Microprocessor based on the P5 fifth-generation Microarchitecture. Likewise, some 16-bit processors (for instance, the MC68000) were referred to as 16-/32-bit processors as they had 16-bit buses, but had some internal 32-bit capabilities. The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit CISC Microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor (formerly Motorola Semiconductor The term may also refer to the size of an instruction in the computer's instruction set or to any other datum (e. An instruction set is a list of all the instructions and all their variations that a processor can execute Debt AIDS Trade in Africa (or DATA) is a Multinational non-government organization founded in January 2002 in London by U2 's g. 64-bit double-precision floating-point quantities are common). In Computing, double precision is a Computer numbering format that occupies two adjacent storage locations in computer memory In Computing, floating point describes a system for numerical representation in which a string of digits (or Bits represents a Real number. Without further qualification, "64-bit" computer architecture generally has integer registers that are 64 bits wide, which allows it to support (both internally and externally) 64-bit "chunks" of integer data. In Computer architecture, a processor register is a small amount of storage available on the CPU whose contents can be accessed more quickly than storage
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Registers in a processor are generally divided into three groups: integer, floating point, and other. In all common general purpose processors, only the integer registers are capable of storing pointer values (that is, an address of some data in memory). The non-integer registers cannot be used to store pointers for the purpose of reading or writing to memory, and therefore cannot be used to bypass any memory restrictions imposed by the size of the integer registers.
Nearly all common general purpose processors (with the notable exception of most ARM and 32-bit MIPS implementations) have integrated floating point hardware, which may or may not use 64-bit registers to hold data for processing. The ARM architecture (previously the Advanced RISC Machine, and prior to that Acorn RISC Machine) is a 32-bit RISC processor architecture MIPS (originally an acronym for Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipeline Stages) is a RISC microprocessor architecture developed by MIPS Technologies For example, the x86 architecture includes the x87 floating-point instructions which use 8 80-bit registers in a stack configuration; later revisions of x86, also include SSE instructions, which use 8 128-bit wide registers. See also X86 assembly language The generic term x86 refers to the most commercially successful Instruction set architecture in the history of Personal x87 is a math-related instruction subset of the X86 architecture of processors. S treaming '''S'''IMD E xtensions ( SSE) is a SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data Instruction set extension to the X86 By contrast, the 64-bit Alpha family of processors defines 32 64-bit wide floating point registers in addition to its 32 64-bit wide integer registers. Alpha, originally known as Alpha AXP, was a 64-bit Reduced instruction set computer (RISC Instruction set architecture (ISA developed
Most CPUs are designed so that the contents of a single integer register can store the address (location) of any datum in the computer's virtual memory. In Computer science, a memory address is an identifier for a memory location at which a Computer program or a hardware device can store a piece of data Virtual memory is a Computer system technique which gives an application program the impression that it has contiguous working memory while in fact it may be physically Therefore, the total number of addresses in the virtual memory – the total amount of data the computer can keep in its working area – is determined by the width of these registers. Beginning in the 1960s with the IBM System/360, then (amongst many others) the DEC VAX minicomputer in the 1970s, and then with the Intel 80386 in the mid-1980s, a de facto consensus developed that 32 bits was a convenient register size. International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology The IBM System/360 ( S/360) is a Mainframe computer system family announced by IBM on April 7, 1964. Digital Equipment Corporation was a pioneering American company in the Computer industry Name "VAX" was originally an Acronym for V irtual A ddress e' X' tension, both because the VAX was seen as a 32-bit This article is about the Decade 1970-1979 For the Year 1970 see 1970. The 1980s was the decade spanning from January 1 1980 to December 31 1989. A 32-bit register meant that 232 addresses, or 4 GBs of RAM, could be referenced. At the time these architectures were devised, 4 GB of memory was so far beyond the typical quantities (0. 016 GB) available in installations that this was considered to be enough "headroom" for addressing. 4 GB addresses were considered an appropriate size to work with for another important reason: 4 billion integers are enough to assign unique references to most physically countable things in applications like databases. A Computer Database is a structured collection of records or data that is stored in a computer system
However, by the early 1990s, the continual reductions in the cost of memory led to installations with quantities of RAM approaching 4 GB, and the use of virtual memory spaces exceeding the 4-gigabyte ceiling became desirable for handling certain types of problems. In response, a number of companies began releasing new families of chips with 64-bit architectures, initially for supercomputers and high-end workstation and server machines. A supercomputer is a Computer that is at the frontline of processing capacity particularly speed of calculation (at the time of its introduction A workstation, such as a Unix workstation, RISC workstation or Engineering workstation, is a high-end Microcomputer A server is a Computer dedicated to providing one or more services over a computer network typically through a request-response routine 64-bit computing has gradually drifted down to the personal computer desktop, with some models in Apple's Macintosh lines switching to PowerPC 970 processors (termed "G5" by Apple) in 2002 and to 64-bit x86-64 processors in 2003 (with the launch of the AMD Athlon 64), and with x86-64 processors becoming common in high-end PCs. Apple Inc, ( formerly Apple Computer Inc, is an American Multinational corporation with a focus on designing and manufacturing Consumer electronics The PowerPC 970, PowerPC 970FX, PowerPC 970GX, and PowerPC 970MP, are 64-bit Power Architecture processors from IBM x86-64 is a Superset of the x86 instruction set architecture. The emergence of the 64-bit architecture effectively increases the memory ceiling to 264 addresses, equivalent to approximately 17. 2 billion gigabytes, 16. 8 million terabytes, or 16 exabytes of RAM. A terabyte (derived from the prefix Tera- and commonly abbreviated TB) is a measurement term for data storage capacity. An exabyte (derived from the SI prefix Exa -) is a unit of Information or Computer storage equal to one Quintillion To put this in perspective, in the days when 4 MB of main memory was commonplace, the maximum memory ceiling of 232 addresses was about 1,000 times larger than typical memory configurations. Today, when 2 GB of main memory is common, the ceiling of 264 addresses is about ten billion times larger, i. e. ten million times more headroom than the 232 case.
Most 64-bit consumer PCs on the market today have an artificial limit on the amount of memory they can recognize, because physical constraints make it highly unlikely that one will need support for the full 16. 8 million terabyte capacity. Apple's Mac Pro, for example, can be physically configured with up to 32 gigabytes of memory. The Mac Pro is a Workstation computer manufactured by Apple Inc [1]
A change from a 32-bit to a 64-bit architecture is a fundamental alteration, as most operating systems must be extensively modified to take advantage of the new architecture. The range of Integer values that can be stored in 32 bits is 0 through 4294967295 or −2147483648 through 2147483647 using Two's complement encoding An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination Other software must also be ported to use the new capabilities; older software is usually supported through either a hardware compatibility mode (in which the new processors support the older 32-bit version of the instruction set as well as the 64-bit version), through software emulation, or by the actual implementation of a 32-bit processor core within the 64-bit processor (as with the Itanium processors from Intel, which include an x86 processor core to run 32-bit x86 applications). See also Software portability In Computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created An emulator duplicates (provides an emulation of the functions of one System using a different system so that the second system behaves like (and appears to See also X86 assembly language The generic term x86 refers to the most commercially successful Instruction set architecture in the history of Personal The operating systems for those 64-bit architectures generally support both 32-bit and 64-bit applications.
One significant exception to this is the AS/400, whose software runs on a virtual ISA, called TIMI (Technology Independent Machine Interface) which is translated to native machine code by low-level software before being executed. The IBM System i is IBM's previous generation of systems designed for IBM i users and was subsequently replaced by the IBM Power Systems in April 2008 An instruction set is a list of all the instructions and all their variations that a processor can execute The low-level software is all that has to be rewritten to move the entire OS and all software to a new platform, such as when IBM transitioned their line from the older 32/48-bit "IMPI" instruction set to 64-bit PowerPC (IMPI wasn't anything like 32-bit PowerPC, so this was an even bigger transition than from a 32-bit version of an instruction set to a 64-bit version of the same instruction set).
While 64-bit architectures indisputably make working with large data sets in applications such as digital video, scientific computing, and large databases easier, there has been considerable debate as to whether they or their 32-bit compatibility modes will be faster than comparably-priced 32-bit systems for other tasks. Digital video is a type of Video recording system that works by using a Digital rather than an analog video signal A Computer Database is a structured collection of records or data that is stored in a computer system In x86-64 architecture (AMD64 and Intel 64), the majority of the 32-bit operating systems and applications are able to run smoothly on the 64-bit hardware. x86-64 is a Superset of the x86 instruction set architecture.
Sun's 64-bit Java virtual machines are slower to start up than their 32-bit virtual machines because Sun has only implemented the "server" JIT compiler (C2) for 64-bit platforms. In Computing, just-in-time compilation ( JIT) also known as dynamic translation, is a technique for improving the runtime performance of a Computer [3] The "client" JIT compiler (C1), which produces less efficient code but compiles much faster, is unavailable on 64-bit platforms.
It should be noted that speed is not the only factor to consider in a comparison of 32-bit and 64-bit processors. Applications such as multi-tasking, stress testing, and clustering (for high-performance computing), HPC, may be more suited to a 64-bit architecture given the correct deployment. High-performance computing (HPC uses Supercomputers and Computer clusters to solve advanced computing problems 64-bit clusters have been widely deployed in large organizations such as IBM, HP and Microsoft, for this reason.
A common misconception is that 64-bit architectures are no better than 32-bit architectures unless the computer has more than 4 GB of memory. This is not entirely true:
The main disadvantage of 64-bit architectures is that relative to 32-bit architectures the same data occupies more space in memory (due to swollen pointers and possibly other types and alignment padding). This increases the memory requirements of a given process and can have implications for efficient processor cache utilization. Maintaining a partial 32-bit model is one way to handle this and is in general reasonably effective. In fact, the highly performance-oriented z/OS operating system takes this approach currently, requiring program code to reside in any number of 32-bit address spaces while data objects can (optionally) reside in 64-bit regions. z/OS is a 64-bit Operating system for Mainframe computers, created by IBM. The range of Integer values that can be stored in 32 bits is 0 through 4294967295 or −2147483648 through 2147483647 using Two's complement encoding
Currently, most commercial software is built as 32-bit code, not 64-bit code, so it can't take advantage of the larger 64-bit address space or wider 64-bit registers and data paths on 64-bit processors, or, on x86 processors, the additional registers in 64-bit mode. However, users of free or open source operating systems have been able to use exclusive 64-bit computing environments for years. Free software or software libre is Software that can be used studied and modified without restriction and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified Open source is a development methodology which offers practical accessibility to a product's source (goods and knowledge Not all such applications require a large address space nor manipulate 64-bit data items, so they wouldn't benefit from the larger address space or wider registers and data paths. The main advantage to 64-bit versions of such applications is the availability to more registers.
64-bit systems sometimes lack equivalents to software that is written for 32-bit architectures. The most severe problem is incompatible device drivers. In computing a device driver or software driver is a Computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a Hardware device Although most software can run in a 32-bit compatibility mode (also known as an emulation mode, e. An emulator duplicates (provides an emulation of the functions of one System using a different system so that the second system behaves like (and appears to g. Microsoft WoW64 Technology for IA64), it is usually impossible to run a driver (or similar software) in that mode since such a program usually runs in between the OS and the hardware, where direct emulation cannot be employed. WoW64 ( Windows-on-Windows 64-bit) is a subsystem of the Windows Operating system that is capable of running 32-bit applications and is included Computer programs (also software programs, or just programs) are instructions for a Computer. An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination An emulator duplicates (provides an emulation of the functions of one System using a different system so that the second system behaves like (and appears to Currently the 64-bit versions for many existing device drivers are not available, so using a 64-bit operating system can become frustrating as a result. However most devices made after February 2007 have 64-bit drivers available as well as many devices made in the later 2006 period.
Because device drivers in operating systems with monolithic kernels, and in many operating systems with hybrid kernels, execute within the operating system kernel, it is possible to run the kernel as a 32-bit process while still supporting 64-bit user processes. A monolithic kernel is a kernel architecture where the entire kernel is run in Kernel space in Supervisor mode. Hybrid kernel is a kernel architecture based on combining aspects of Microkernel and Monolithic kernel architectures used in Computer This provides the memory and performance benefits of 64-bit for users without breaking binary compatibility with existing 32-bit device drivers, at the cost of some additional overhead within the kernel. This is the mechanism by which Mac OS X enables 64-bit processes while still supporting 32-bit device drivers. Mac OS X (mæk oʊ ɛs tɛn is a line of computer Operating systems developed marketed and sold by Apple Inc, the latest of which is pre-loaded on all currently
Converting application software written in a high-level language from a 32-bit architecture to a 64-bit architecture varies in difficulty. In computing a high-level programming language is a Programming language with strong abstraction from the details of the computer One common recurring problem is that some programmers assume that pointers have the same length as some other data type. These programmers assume they can transfer quantities between these data types without losing information. Those assumptions happen to be true on some 32-bit machines (and even some 16-bit machines), but they are no longer true on 64-bit machines. The C programming language and its descendant C++ make it particularly easy to make this sort of mistake. tags please moot on the talk page first! --> In Computing, C is a general-purpose cross-platform block structured C++ (" C Plus Plus " ˌsiːˌplʌsˈplʌs is a general-purpose Programming language. Differences between the C89 and C99 language standards also exacerbate the problem [1]. tags please moot on the talk page first! --> In Computing, C is a general-purpose cross-platform block structured tags please moot on the talk page first! --> In Computing, C is a general-purpose cross-platform block structured
To avoid this mistake in C and C++, the sizeof operator can be used to determine the size of these primitive types if decisions based on their size need to be made, both at compile- and run-time. Also, the <limits.h> header in the C99 standard, and numeric_limits class in <limits> header in the C++ standard, give more helpful info; sizeof only returns the size in chars. TemplateC_Standard_library --> limitsh is the header of the general purpose standard library of the C programming language tags please moot on the talk page first! --> In Computing, C is a general-purpose cross-platform block structured For other uses see Character. In Computer and machine-based Telecommunications terminology a character is a unit of This used to be misleading, because the standards leave the definition of the CHAR_BIT macro, and therefore the number of bits in a char, to the implementations. However, except for those compilers targeting DSPs, "64 bits == 8 chars of 8 bits each" has become the norm. A digital signal processor ( DSP or DSP micro) is a specialized Microprocessor designed specifically for Digital signal processing, generally
One needs to be careful to use the ptrdiff_t type (in the standard header <stddef. h>) for the result of subtracting two pointers; too much code incorrectly uses "int" or "long" instead. To represent a pointer (rather than a pointer difference) as an integer, use uintptr_t where available (it is only defined in C99, but some compilers otherwise conforming to an earlier version of the standard offer it as an extension).
Neither C nor C++ define the length of a pointer, int, or long to be a specific number of bits. C99, however, defines several dedicated integer types with an exact number of bits. stdinth is a Header file in the C standard library introduced in the C99 standard library section 7
In most programming environments on 32-bit machines, pointers, "int" types, and "long" types are all 32 bits wide.
However, in many programming environments on 64-bit machines, "int" variables are still 32 bits wide, but "long"s and pointers are 64 bits wide. These are described as having an LP64 data model. A data model is an Abstract model that describes how data is represented and accessed Another alternative is the ILP64 data model in which all three data types are 64 bits wide, and even SILP64 where "short" variables are also 64 bits wide. However, in most cases the modifications required are relatively minor and straightforward, and many well-written programs can simply be recompiled for the new environment without changes. Another alternative is the LLP64 model, which maintains compatibility with 32-bit code by leaving both int and long as 32-bit. "LL" refers to the "long long" type, which is at least 64 bits on all platforms, including 32-bit environments.
Many 64-bit compilers today use the LP64 model (including Solaris, AIX, HP, Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, and IBM z/OS native compilers). Microsoft's VC++ compiler uses the LLP64 model. The disadvantage of the LP64 model is that storing a long into an int may overflow. On the other hand, casting a pointer to a long will work. In the LLP model, the reverse is true. These are not problems which affect fully standard-compliant code but code is often written with implicit assumptions about the widths of integer types.
Note that a programming model is a choice made on a per-compiler basis, and several can coexist on the same OS. However typically the programming model chosen by the OS API as primary model dominates.
Another consideration is the data model used for drivers. In computing a device driver or software driver is a Computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a Hardware device Drivers make up the majority of the operating system code in most modern operating systems (although many may not be loaded when the operating system is running). Many drivers use pointers heavily to manipulate data, and in some cases have to load pointers of a certain size into the hardware they support for DMA. Direct memory access ( DMA) is a feature of modern Computers and Microprocessors that allows certain hardware subsystems within the computer to access system As an example, a driver for a 32-bit PCI device asking the device to DMA data into upper areas of a 64-bit machine's memory could not satisfy requests from the operating system to load data from the device to memory above the 4 gigabyte barrier, because the pointers for those addresses would not fit into the DMA registers of the device. This problem is solved by having the OS take the memory restrictions of the device into account when generating requests to drivers for DMA, or by using an IOMMU. In Computing, an input/output memory management unit ( IOMMU) is a Memory management unit (MMU that connects a DMA -capable I/O bus
| Data model | short | int | long | long long | pointers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LP64 | 16 | 32 | 64 | 64 | 64 |
| ILP64 | 16 | 64 | 64 | 64 | 64 |
| SILP64 | 64 | 64 | 64 | 64 | 64 |
| LLP64 | 16 | 32 | 32 | 64 | 64 |
64-bit microprocessor architectures (as of 2006) include:
Most 64-bit processor architectures can execute code for the 32-bit version of the architecture natively without any performance penalty. This kind of support is commonly called biarch support or more generally multi-arch support.
In digital imaging, 64-bit refers to 48-bit images with a 16-bit alpha channel. Computers with 48-bit words include CDC 1604 and BESM-6. The IBM AS/400, in its CISC variants is a 48-bit addressing system In Computer graphics, alpha compositing is the process of combining an image with a background to create the appearance of partial transparency
This article was originally based on material from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, which is licensed under the GFDL. The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing ( FOLDOC) is an online searchable encyclopedic Dictionary of Computing subjects The GNU Free Documentation License ( GNU FDL or simply GFDL) is a Copyleft License for free documentation designed by the Free Software