> This makes the CPU core a fair bit more complicated, meaning larger silicon footprint are higher power consumption. Is 5% a "fair bit"? I ask because the MI

> This makes the CPU core a fair bit more complicated, meaning larger silicon footprint are higher power consumption. Is 5% a "fair bit"? I ask because the MIPS folks said that their 64 bit instruction set cost them less than 5%. And yes, their 64 bit CPUS supported both their 64 and 32 bit ISAs.