differance between 32bit and 64bit processors

Trebor

So what is the differance? i need to know for a uni project and all i can find on the web is benchmarking stats and people saying that 64bit is better. i need to know why and how it is better. i know it can access more memory and can perform more calculations at one time but i need a link to something that explains how it does it.

cheers

Khannie

ok, 32 bit processor can address 32 ^ 2 bits of memory, 64 bit processors can address 64 ^2 bits of memory.

64 bit processors also have 64 bit registers and use 64 bit wide processing units (for integers for example).

There's nothing inherantly "better" about 64bit unless you need to access more than 4GB of address space. In fact, equivalent 64bit programs will use more memory at runtime then their 32bit counterparts.

dogbert_the_dog

try this.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64-bit


seems pretty comprehensive

Khannie

Ah, wikipedia ftw.