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Second, the size of the address space. This is how the processor finds data to work on, and where to put the new data once it's finished processing. This is also measured in bits, but in this case, the decimal number created by the string of bits defines how many memory locations the processor can see. And what's at each location? Traditionally, one byte. So a 16-bit address space means that the processor can see 65,536 one-byte memory locations (known as 64 kilobytes, or 64KB, or 64K). A 32-bit address space can see 4,294,967,296 bytes, or four gigabytes, or 4GB. Note that address zero counts too, so in addressing, you use the power of 2 without any subtraction.
This is actually a significant problem today. Memory is so cheap that 4 or even 8 gigabytes of RAM are easily within reach of the average customer, and programs are getting to the point where they can make use of it. But processors, operating systems, and software with 32-bit address spaces are limited to 4GB in total. PC games like ''[[
What's this mean in practice? More bits means you can discuss much bigger concepts without needing goofy programmer-unfriendly solutions. It means that you can get better graphics and larger environments, as larger textures and bigger levels can be loaded into memory. It's not the only important thing: there's not much benefit if you don't have processor speed, memory, graphics processing capability, and storage space for the relevant stuff to float around in first. In addition, 64-bit addresses take up twice as much space as 32-bit addresses, meaning more memory is required for the 64-bit system (although usually not as bad as double, since not everything needs to be replaced by a 64-bit version).
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