On Thu, Jun 18, 2009 at 3:52 PM, Erik Goldoff <[email protected]> wrote: > No way ... A word is 8 bits, or two 4 bit nybbles
Generically, a "word" the size of the chunk of data the machine works with natively. Generically, on x86 in real mode, a word is 16 bits. In protected mode, it's 32 bits. In long mode, it's 64 bits. But see below. On Itanium, a word is always 64-bits. On some mainframes, the word size might be 24 bits or 36 bits or other weird things. Some machines have an "address word" and an "instruction word" and so on, because they're not all the same size. Some platforms/subcultures get attached to the word size they first meet. For example, on x86, it's common to call 32-bit "double word" (dword) and 64-bit "quad word" (qword). The DEC Alpha, which was always ever 64-bit, still called its native word size "qword" because it was designed by DEC'ies who started on the 16-bit PDP. -- Ben ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
