eli5: difference between 32 bit and 64 bit OS.

Question

eli5: difference between 32 bit and 64 bit OS.

In: 6

Answer 1

The CPU will take and execute one instruction at a time, each instruction can be represented as a binary number. A 32 bit OS uses instructions 32 bits long (~4 billion possible combinations) and 64 bit OS uses instructions 64 bits long (~18 quintillion).

A major consequence of this length is that the RAM address must be able to be represented inside the space of a single instruction for the sake of efficiency, meaning this provides a limit to total RAM capacity.