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Understanding C

This document compares 32-bit and 64-bit systems. It explains that 32-bit systems can address up to 4GB of RAM with a 32-bit register, while 64-bit systems can address much more - up to 16 exabytes - with a 64-bit register. It notes that while a 64-bit system can theoretically access far more memory than needed, it allows computers to have over 4GB of RAM. The document also clarifies that while 64-bit machines typically have 64-bit registers, the size of data types like integers is determined by the compiler, not the hardware. Most 64-bit systems define integers as 4 bytes for backwards compatibility.

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128 views

Understanding C

This document compares 32-bit and 64-bit systems. It explains that 32-bit systems can address up to 4GB of RAM with a 32-bit register, while 64-bit systems can address much more - up to 16 exabytes - with a 64-bit register. It notes that while a 64-bit system can theoretically access far more memory than needed, it allows computers to have over 4GB of RAM. The document also clarifies that while 64-bit machines typically have 64-bit registers, the size of data types like integers is determined by the compiler, not the hardware. Most 64-bit systems define integers as 4 bytes for backwards compatibility.

Uploaded by

shafi hasmani
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Difference between 32 bit and 64 bit system

--> 32-bit and 64-bit are commonly used to describe processor architecture or
design. A 32-bit processor includes a 32-bit register, which can store 232 or
4,294,967,296 values. A 64-bit processor includes a 64-bit register, which can
store 264 or 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 values. Therefore, a 64-bit register is not
twice as large as a 32-bit register, but is 4,294,967,296 times larger. That's a
big difference, but how does it affect computing performance?

--> The CPU register stores memory addresses, which is how the processor accesses
data from RAM. One bit in the register can reference an individual byte in memory,
so a 32-bit system can address a maximum of 4 gigabytes (4,294,967,296 bytes) of
RAM. The actual limit is often less – around 3.5 gigabytes – since part of the
registry is used to store other temporary values besides memory addresses.

--> A 64-bit register can theoretically reference 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 bytes,


or 17,179,869,184 gigabytes (16 exabytes) of memory. This is several million times
more than an average workstation would need to access. What's important is that a
64-bit computer (which means it has a 64-bit processor) can access more than 4 GB
of RAM. If a computer has 16 GB of RAM, it better have a 64-bit processor.
Otherwise, at least 12 GB of the memory will be inaccessible by the CPU.
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Is it necessary that 64 bit system have 8 bytes wide integers?

--> "64-bit machine" can mean many things, but typically means that the CPU has
registers that big. The sizeof a type is determined by the compiler, which doesn't
have to have anything to do with the actual hardware (though it typically does); in
fact, different compilers on the same machine can have different values for these.

--> So it depends on compiler to set the size of ineteger

--> To maintain backwards compatibility in most of the 64 bit system integer size
is of 4 bytes.
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