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Ask HN: Why do we have only 32 bit and 64 bit OS?

• db48x 5y ago
  What other sizes would you like?
  • URfejk 5y ago
    42. The right answer is always 42. :)
    • db48x 5y ago
      :)
  • LinuxBender 5y ago
    Whatever gets us closer to The Custodian [1] [1] - https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Custodian https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Custodian
• detaro 5y ago
  because that's what's native to the processors we have.
• johndoe0815 5y ago
  Because it's quite difficult to find a PDP10 or DECsystem-20 today... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOPS-10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOPS-10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TENEX_(operating_system) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TENEX_(operating_system)
• beardyw 5y ago
  I worked on ICL computers in the 1970s with 24 bit words made up of four 6 bit bytes. Having just 64 characters limited text output a lot. Having 8 bits was much better and it stuck. Using 4 or 8 of those is just about address space.
• rurban 5y ago
  Because 8-16 bit cpu's are fine without. Eg baremetal AVR firmware comes without all the OS bloat, it does one thing only.