Path: utzoo!yunexus!geac!syntron!jtsv16!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!ncar!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!uw-june!david
From: david@june.cs.washington.edu (David Callahan)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: 64 bit ints
Message-ID: <6264@june.cs.washington.edu>
Date: 28 Oct 88 14:31:57 GMT
Article-I.D.: june.6264
Reply-To: david@uw-june.UUCP (David Callahan)
Organization: U of Washington, Computer Science, Seattle
Lines: 15


Suppose I am designing a C compiler for a machine with 64bit
words. "Char" should be 8bits of course and "long int" 64 since
pointers will be.

How long should an "int" be (32 or 64)? 
How about a "short int" (16/32)?
How is this decision altered if partial word accesses 
are more expensive than full word accesses?

What have other 64bit vendors done (assuming I'd like to
be compatible with someone)?

David Callahan
Tera Computer Co.
Seattle Washington