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What does it mean by word size in computer?

I have tried to get a grasp of what "word" means and I have looked in the wiki and the definition is vague. So my question is what is "word size"? Is it the length of the data bus, address bus?

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kofhearts Avatar asked Nov 06 '13 19:11

kofhearts


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What is word size in simple words?

"Word size" refers to the number of bits processed by a computer's CPU in one go (these days, typically 32 bits or 64 bits). Data bus size, instruction size, address size are usually multiples of the word size.

How do you determine a word size?

That being said, on Windows with Intel processors, the nominal word size will be either 32 or 64 bits and you can easily figure this out: if your program is compiled for 32-bits, then the nominal word size is 32-bits. if you have compiled a 64-bit program then then the nominal word size is 64-bits.

What is machine word or word size in CPU?

Modern processors, including embedded systems, usually have a word size of 8, 16, 24, 32, or 64 bits, while modern general purpose computers usually use 32 or 64 bits.

How much is a word size?

For any computer architecture with an eight-bit byte, the word will be some multiple of eight bits. In IBM's evolutionary System/360 architecture, a word is 32 bits, or four contiguous eight-bit bytes. In Intel's PC processor architecture, a word is 16 bits, or two contiguous eight-bit bytes.


1 Answers

"Word size" refers to the number of bits processed by a computer's CPU in one go (these days, typically 32 bits or 64 bits). Data bus size, instruction size, address size are usually multiples of the word size.

Just to confuse matters, for backwards compatibility, Microsoft Windows API defines a WORD as being 16 bits, a DWORD as 32 bits and a QWORD as 64 bits, regardless of the processor.

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ᴇʟᴇvᴀтᴇ Avatar answered Sep 20 '22 14:09

ᴇʟᴇvᴀтᴇ