Does it make the computer faster? And how are they different from 8 and 16-bit video game consoles?
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32 or 64 are the “bandwith” of a computers instructions.
The CPU of a computer takes in 32 or 64 bits and does some kind of instructions on that.
Bigger calculations that dont fit in this have to be split into multiple instructions and have to store some temp result.
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essentially, a bit represents either a 1 or a 0. The more bits a computer has, the bigger the values it can use.
For example, the biggest number a 8 bit computer can get to is 2^8 = 256 (each bit has 2 states (either 1 or 0), and we have 8 of them) which means the largest number it can get to is 255 (0 to 255, 256 numbers)
You cant caluclate anything that has a result larger than 255.
same thing with 32 and 64 bits.
2^32 = 4,294,967,296
2^64 = 1.84467441E+19
This is the main difference.
A 64 bit computer can handle massive numbers at once.
LMK if y need to know more 🙂
A “bit” is a single piece of information, in a binary computer it is either on or off, 0 or 1.
The expression 8 bit or 16 bit refers to how many of these piece of information a computer can deal with in one action.
so 8 bits means the computer can handle data 8 characters wide:
8 = 10001000
16 = 1000100010001000
32 = 10001000100010001000100010001000
64 = 1000100010001000100010001000100010001000100010001000100010001000
so the more bits the more information a computer can process at one instant.
Speed is also determined by how many times per second the compute reads or does an action on this piece of information, this is typically referred to in the “Mega Hertz” or “Giga hertz”
So more information can go through a computer if the computer can handle larger and larger numbers at the same time (more bits) or can process faster (more hertz)
The easiest way I can think of:
Imagine a word 16 letters, 32 letters and a word 64 letters long. you can write way more “words” with 64 letters!
every “combination” of letters, every word, is referring to a box with something inside.
with 64 letters long words, you have waaay more boxes.
those bits are exactly that: the size of the address of every memory section.
If you have longer addresses, you can address a lot more memory.
And that’s also the size of the “containers” in the CPU, where a single data can be stored. that’s way oversimplified
>Does it make the computer faster
now, talking about performance: is it better with more bits? yes.. and no. if you have very specific applications (mathematical calculations, games etc…) it will improve performance.
for standard applications, no, it won’t.
Well, except you can have more total memory. So it will increase overall performance of the system.
16 bits can address 64KB of RAM
32 bits can address 4GB of RAM (3.3 actually, for strange limitations)
64 bits.. well.. A LOT of RAM.
And having bigger container in the CPU can perform two mathematical calculations at one time.
>how are they different from 8 and 16-bit video game consoles
That’s similar. those terms were the length of the data used by the graphical chip. let’s say “the box content” in the prev. example. Why Nintendo choose this? IDK
EDIT: better console explanation
This value is called the “native word size,” and it determines the maximum number size the processor can operate on in a single step.
A 32-bit computer *can* work with 64-bit (or even larger) numbers, but it has to split operations into multiple steps. For example, to add two 64-bit numbers it would need to take twice as many steps. In practical terms, this makes it slower when working with large numbers than a 64-bit computer.
This is an oversimplification, but it’s the gist of things.
32bit and 64bit determines, what is the biggest number or longest word a computer can process in one step. 32bit represents big numbers, roughly all 10 digit numbers. 64bit represents very very very big numbers, roughly all 20 digit numbers.
If a computer needs to add two numbers that both have 15 digits, a 64bit computer can do it in one operation. 32bit computer needs two steps to do that. 64bit computer is twice as fast. Not all operations are twice as fast though. If you simply need to add mere millions, both will do it in one go.
To sum up – 64bit architecture allows the computer do perform some operations much faster.
You want to tell me how to do something? If you can say 32 words in a breath versus 64 words in a breath you can see how the 64 word scenario would have the ability to tell me the instructions in fewer breaths. 32 bit vs. 64 bit represents the size of each block of information that can be processed. There’s a bit more to it, but this is the ELI5 version
It doesn’t impact the speed directly. That’s the processor’s job. But the processor uses those bits.
An analogy might be: you’re in your kitchen and you know where stuff is. That’s the silverware drawer, pots are over there, etc. You are the processor and knowing where stuff is in your single family kitchen is 32 bits. Now imagine moving into a huge restaurant kitchen. It has the same basic stuff and you could still cook for your family, but until you can find all the stuff in the bigger kitchen you can’t cook for 20 families at once. That’s 64 bits.
The bigger kitchen is the amount of RAM, or memory (not storage), in the computer.
When we had 8b, we only had a hotel microwave and a mini fridge to figure out. 8b was plenty. 16b era we had a kitchenette, 32b era we had a normal kitchen, etc. Note: the number of bits is just being able to find things (address them). We had 8b because we didn’t need to find a lot of stuff in the hotel mini fridge… these days we have a massive kitchen (32GB+ of memory!) and the ability to remember where a tremendous amount of stuff is in that kitchen (I know where those tongs are!).
Recently we’ve been upgrading the processor to handle all the “families” (threads) that we can cook for at once, too. Theoretically that will make things more efficient, but in any good kitchen, timing is critical. There’s a lot to it. But maybe this helps.
**Like you’re five:**
Imagine you and your friend are playing a game. You’re wearing a blindfold, and he’s trying to get you to a goal post that is diagonal from you. The catch is, he can only give you two-word instructions like “go left” or “go forward”. You will reach the goal, but you can’t go straight there’s
Now let him use 4 words instead of 2. “Go forward and left”. You will know to travel diagonally to the goal.
That’s basically the difference. More information in a single instruction means things go faster.
**Like you’re older than 5:**
At the core of your computer is a processor. That processor is being constantly fed a set of instructions. It takes those instructions and tells the rest of the computer what to do.
A bit has two possible values, 1 or 0. A 32 bit operating system means the processor can process 32 bit instructions, same goes for 64 bit instructions. This means your computer can do much more with a single instruction, so everything happens faster.
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