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64-bit versions of Windows cannot run 16-bit software. However, most 32-bit applications will work well. 64-bit users are forced to install a virtual machine of a 16- or 32-bit operating system to run 16-bit applications or use one of the alternatives for NTVDM. [40]
A 32-bit register can store 2 32 different values. The range of integer values that can be stored in 32 bits depends on the integer representation used. With the two most common representations, the range is 0 through 4,294,967,295 (2 32 − 1) for representation as an binary number, and −2,147,483,648 (−2 31) through 2,147,483,647 (2 31 − 1) for representation as two's complement.
Most 8-bit CPUs of the 1970s fall into this category; the MOS 6502, Intel 8080, Zilog Z80 and most others had 16-bit address space which provided 64 KB of address space. This also meant address manipulation required two instruction cycles. For this reason, most processors had special 8-bit addressing modes, the zero page, improving speed. This ...
Many 16-bit CPUs already existed in the mid-1970s. Over the next 30 years, the shift to 16-bit, 32-bit and 64-bit computing allowed, respectively, 2 16 = 65,536 unique words, 2 32 = 4,294,967,296 unique words and 2 64 = 18, 446, 744, 073, 709, 551, 616 unique words, each step offering a meaningful advantage until 64 bits was reached
Computer architectures are often described as n-bit architectures. In the first 3 ⁄ 4 of the 20th century, n is often 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 48 or 60.In the last 1 ⁄ 3 of the 20th century, n is often 8, 16, or 32, and in the 21st century, n is often 16, 32 or 64, but other sizes have been used (including 6, 39, 128).
The term bit length is technical shorthand for this measure. For example, computer processors are often designed to process data grouped into words of a given length of bits (8 bit, 16 bit, 32 bit, 64 bit, etc.). The bit length of each word defines, for one thing, how many memory locations can be independently addressed by the processor.
An 8-bit register can store 2 8 different values. The range of integer values that can be stored in 8 bits depends on the integer representation used. With the two most common representations, the range is 0 through 255 (2 8 − 1) for representation as an binary number, and −128 (−1 × 2 7) through 127 (2 7 − 1) for representation as two's complement.
The advantage over 8-bit or 16-bit integers is that the increased dynamic range allows for more detail to be preserved in highlights and shadows for images, and avoids gamma correction. The advantage over 32-bit single-precision floating point is that it requires half the storage and bandwidth (at the expense of precision and range). [5]