3 ms·
> I always assumed it's 16 bit internally as well? Correct, it's mostly 16-bit internally. Registers are 32-bit, but are split into 16-bit halves. The ALU is m
by mikepavone 3y ago
> I always assumed it's 16 bit internally as well?
Correct, it's mostly 16-bit internally. Registers are 32-bit, but are split into 16-bit halves. The ALU is mostly 16-bit, but has a 32-bit shift register which is used for both shift/rotate operations and multiply/divide. There's a 32-bit adder in the "address unit" that's used for effective address calculations (including the LEA instruction), but it's much more limited than the ALU
- ebruchez 3y agoThe best part was that, no matter the size of internal or external buses, the programming model was 32-bit and extremely consistent. It was (and still is I suppose) so nice to write assembly code for it.