> It was definitely a weird time - the transition from "home computers" (8-bit mostly) to "personal computers" (32 bit mostly) - and 16 bit machines were mostly

> It was definitely a weird time - the transition from "home computers" (8-bit mostly) to "personal computers" (32 bit mostly) - and 16 bit machines were mostly skipped over Well, IBM PC & clone started their lives as 16 bits machines, and 386 based computer were not really affordable before ~1990 I would say; I'm not sure precisely, but it is around that date. So there was something like ~9 years when 32 bits was not broadly available (and given 386-based computers launched in 87, ~6 years when is not not available at all). Then until Win95 those PC continued to be importantly used in 16-bits mode, even if with more and more 32 bits pieces here and there toward the end, with all kind of "interesting" mixes (be it 32 bits apps on 16 bits OSes, mostly 16 bit OS+app on 32 bits VMMs, or even some 32/16/32 weird Frankenstein sandwiches). Given 16 bits software components did not (nearly) completely disappear before XP (let's recall the period when rich people looked at the PPro with envy - only to be told that it ran 16 bits code, still good parts of consumer Windows, quite slowly), it can even be reasonable to put the mark of the 16 -> 32 transition on the year 1995. That gives 14 years of 16 bits software, for IBM PC & compatibles. It's such a mess that I want to split the difference again to get simple number: let's say we had 16 bits PCs during 6 to 14 years => 10 years. Then AMD64 was introduced in 2003. It's also hard to put a definitive figure because we got interesting mixes of 32+64, although in this case the OSes vs Apps mix could not be as crazy as before, the price was more quickly affordable, and the remaining apps in 32 bits were (and in some case still are!) only there because the transition is far less interesting than the 16 -> 32 bits one; so it's mostly a non subject as long as the OS let use all the resources of the machine. But to be fair with the other part of the comparison, let's use Vista as the broad availability of a 64 bits Windows (because I don't believe that XP64 was much used) so 2006. (Even if Seven is needed to get more 64 bits installs, but 2006 is conveniently also between 2003 and 2009..) So back to the start, with our middle-ground figures, we got: 1981 + 10 years => 91, then 91 to 2006 => 15 years. So I would not say that 16 bits was skipped for IBM compatibles, not even mostly skipped. Hell I even wish it would have been the case: we would have had a less messy legacy...