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Subject: Re: How many bits are mos efficient?

Author: Don Dailey

Date: 07:15:36 10/01/98

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On October 01, 1998 at 01:58:58, Georg Langrath wrote:

>If 32 bits are more effective than 16, does this go on? I mean are 64 bits
>better than 32, 128 bits better then 64 and so on. What is the optimum?
>
>Georg

There seems to be some advantage for a 64 over a 32 and a 32 over a 16.
But most programs are written with a specific architecture in mind.
If you KNOW you are going to use a 32 bit machine you can write a very
efficient program for that architecture.

I'm not sure every program that claims to be a "32 bit program" is
really a 32 bit program.  If your program takes specific advantage
of 32 bit operations (substatntial advantage) then it can properly
be called a 32 bit program.  An example of this is using a data
structure where each bit represents a specific piece which is something
I did in an old version of Socrates.  Each square of the board contained
a 32 bit value that tells you which pieces can move (or attack) that
sqaure.   You could still do this with a 16 bit processor but it is
not a natural operation for the computer.

The same analogy with Crafty. Crafty was written with a 64 bit processor
in mind.  It contains many 64 bit operations that are ideally suited
to a machine with 64 bit architecture.  Even though it runs just fine
on a 32 bit machine like the pentium it is really a program designed for
serious processors.

- Don



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