On 24 Aug 99, at 23:24, Alessio Palma wrote:
>"Anthony J. Albert" ha scritto:
>> I must agree that 1 bit of information is the basis. Also that 4 bits
>> are usually called a "nibble" and 8 bits makes a "byte".
>>
>> However, larger sizes are "words" and "double words", and these
>> are highly machine-dependant on the number of bits which makes
>> up each. PDP, VAX, and IBM equipment have had "words" in sizes
>> from 12 bits to 34 bits, and other microprocessors use words of 8
>> to 64 to (in Very Large Instruction Word processors) 128 bits and
>> up!
>>
>> Typically, a "word" refers to the usual size of data that the
>> processor works with; frequently this is also the width of the data
>> bus. In Intel microprocessors, the 8086, 80186, and 80286 used 16-
>> bit "words", and the 80386 and 80486 used 32-bit "words"
>>
>
>That's Babele's Tower!!! Why don't simply define byte, words, Dword etc.. in
>mathematical way?
>So CPUs using 32 bit data they are using DWORDS, if they have 16 bit data are
>using WORD ...
I don't deny that it's confusing at all - it can be confusing. I also
certainly think that in an Intel-microprocessor dominated mailing
list, it's not unlikely that the bulk of the subscribers have never
seen processors that worked with 12-bit words. But such things do
exist, and in fact, are quite common, though they are mostly used
in embedded controllers. An example would be the PIC
microprocessor, produced by Microchip. It's an excellent
embedded controller, and uses 12-bit or 14-bit words.
http://www.microchip.com
I merely report the definition of "WORD" that I have seen over the
last twenty years of working in the computing industry. I certainly
agree that it could be less confusing if there was a definition of
"WORD" which settled it at a certain, unchanging, number of bits,
but I'm afraid that I don't have one.
As is mentioned in another series of messages, there's also the
definition of "kilo-" as a prefix in the computer industry, which,
contrary to the metric system and the International Standards for
Prefixes, really is 2^10 bytes = 1024. Then the marketing types
come along and muddy the waters with claims that make it look
like it's just 1000 - which makes their numbers look better.
You've got to love the flexibility of the English language. :)
Anthony J. Albert
==============================================================
Anthony J. Albert [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Systems and Software Support Specialist Postmaster
Computer Services - University of Maine, Presque Isle
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