Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!cbmnlux!cbmehq!cbmger!peterk
From: peterk@cbmger.UUCP (Peter Kittel GERMANY)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: 8-bit death
Message-ID: <1196@cbmger.UUCP>
Date: 3 May 91 06:32:10 GMT
References: <1991Apr28.162045.15585@daffy.cs.wisc.edu> <1991Apr30.112820.2451@sugar.hackercorp.com> <1991May2.012127.28779@daffy.cs.wisc.edu> <1991May2.104907.25975@sugar.hackercorp.com>
Reply-To: peterk@cbmger.UUCP (Peter Kittel GERMANY)
Organization: Commodore Bueromaschinen GmbH, West Germany
Lines: 25

In article <1991May2.104907.25975@sugar.hackercorp.com> peter@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) writes:
>In article <1991May2.012127.28779@daffy.cs.wisc.edu> dinda@cat53.cs.wisc.edu (Peter Dinda) writes:
>
>> Sorry, the 8088 has a 16 bit ALU - most machines are characterized on 
>> the basis of two things - the ALU and the Data Bus Widths.  The 8088 has
>> an 8 bit Data Bus, but all internal processing is done 16 bits at a time.
>> The register pairs can be used either as full 16 bit registers, or split
>> in half to act as twice as many 8 bit registers.
>
>Uh, huh. And the 6809 (clearly an 8-bit machine) has a 16-bit ALU and an
>8-bit data bus, 16-bit registers and PC. That makes it every bit as 16-bit
>as the 80x86 (x<2). The 1802 has an 8-bit ALU, 8-bit data bus, and 16 16-bit
>registers. But all three of these chips have the same limitations in their
>programming model: you can't point to more than 16 bits of address at a time.

Considering the ALU size can really be misleading. Someone told me that
the Z80 only has a 4-bit ALU, though this processor provides some
16-bit commands (it's fast enough to break the 16-bit values into
4-bit nibbles and process them fast enough). Now what would you then
call the Z80 and the CP/M running on it? 4-bit?
(Ok, I know this only from hearsay, please correct me if I'm wrong.)

-- 
Best regards, Dr. Peter Kittel  // E-Mail to  \\  Only my personal opinions... 
Commodore Frankfurt, Germany  \X/ {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!cbmger!peterk