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Why we don't have 128-bit CPUs (www.xda-developers.com)
submitted 5 months ago by jwr1@kbin.earth to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[-] wewbull@feddit.uk 15 points 5 months ago

We can, but it's awkward to do so. By having everything work with powers of 2 you don't need to have everything the same size, but can still pack things in memory efficiently.

If your registers were 48bits long, you can use it to store 6 bytes, or 3 short ints, but only one int with 16-bits going unused. If they are powers of two in size, you can always fit smaller things in them with no wasted space.

[-] asmoranomar@lemmy.world 11 points 5 months ago

A better example is to explain the chaos of having to go to the grocery store and pick up some hot dogs and buns. You know the pain.

this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2024
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