A quick look at the pinouts of an Intel 8086 & 8088 processor reveals a 20 bit address bus. There was high demand for the ability to address 1 meg (2^20) of address space, and Intel delivered. However ...

We’ve come to the point where we need to define an assembly language for our 4-Bit HRRG Computer, but first we need to consider certain concepts. These days, we are used to programming our computers ...

ARM has introduced its first 64-bit microprocessor architecture, ARMv8, which should enable wider use of ARM chips in servers and other enterprise equipment and turn up the competitive heat on Intel.

Remember the early 90's when we were transitioning from 16-bit to 32-bit operating systems? Some people were unimpressed, but I think most of us could see that 32-bit systems were going to solve an ...

The history of 64-bit computing is quite varied and interesting. Companies like Cray started using 64-bit registers in their systems in the mid-1970s, however pure 64-bit computing didn’t really come ...

We design different kinds of System-on-Chips (SoCs/Chips) tailored for different electronic products. Let’s explore how we approach designing various electronic products like embedded microcontrollers ...

At the launch of Microsoft's 64-bit versions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 late last month, Bill Gates promised great things for the "64-bit decade". The transition from 8-bit computing to ...

Ask Ars was one of the first features of the newly born Ars Technica back in 1998. And now, as then, it's all about your questions and our community's answers. Each week, we'll dig into our bag of ...