Re: Disk slower in 755CX

["Robert George" <george@holmes.cs.nps.navy.mil>]

On Aug 28,  6:09pm, Robert Dewar wrote:
> Subject: Re: Disk slower in 755CX
> Pentium 32-bit or 64-bit
>
> this argment is simply one of terminology. What does an n-bit processor mean:
>
>   n-bit addresses
>   n-bit registers
>   n-bit integer arithmetic
>   n-bit internal data paths
>   n-bit external address bus
>
> ???
>
> depending on how you answer this, you get different views, normally I would
> agree that the Pentium is a 32-bit processor, but it just depends on your
> definitions.
>-- End of excerpt from Robert Dewar

Any basic computer architectures textbook (Henessey et al, Hwang, ...) will
describe the architecture of a chip by its internal datapath width  -- which in
almost all cases is the same as the register width and the integer arithmetic
width.

So the currently available 64-bit processor are the DEC 2106x (Alpha), the MIPS
R4x00 and R6000, and the PowerPC 620.  The P5x's and the P6 are 32-bit
architectures.

BTW, Intel refers to the P5 and P6 architectures as 32-bit in their technical
references.

Robert George
Army Research Laboratory