How many bytes is a word in x86?

8 byte
In x86 assembly language WORD , DOUBLEWORD ( DWORD ) and QUADWORD ( QWORD ) are used for 2, 4 and 8 byte sizes, regardless of the machine word size. A word is typically the “native” data size of the CPU. That is, on a 16-bit CPU, a word is 16 bits, on a 32-bit CPU, it’s 32 and so on.

Why is a word 16 bits?

There very simple answer is that 16 bits were the design criteria of the original x86 processor. In an assembly language, a word is the CPU’s natural working size. The 8086 was the first processor Intel designed larger than an 8 bit processor.

Is a word 32 bits or 16 bits?

A byte is eight bits, a word is 2 bytes (16 bits), a doubleword is 4 bytes (32 bits), and a quadword is 8 bytes (64 bits).

Does x86 equal 32-bit?

32-bit is NOT called x86. There are tens of 32-bit architectures such as MIPS, ARM, PowerPC, SPARC which are not called x86 . x86 is a term meaning any instruction set which derived from the instruction set of Intel 8086 processor. You have probably been seeing some “x86” and ”x64″ names of some Windows packages.

Is a word 16 bit?

Data structures containing such different sized words refer to them as WORD (16 bits/2 bytes), DWORD (32 bits/4 bytes) and QWORD (64 bits/8 bytes) respectively.

How big is a word on x86?

16 bits
In the x86 PC (Intel, AMD, etc.), although the architecture has long supported 32-bit and 64-bit registers, its native word size stems back to its 16-bit origins, and a “single” word is 16 bits. A “double” word is 32 bits. See 32-bit computer and 64-bit computer.

What is word in x86?

x86 Architecture In the x86 PC (Intel, AMD, etc.), although the architecture has long supported 32-bit and 64-bit registers, its native word size stems back to its 16-bit origins, and a “single” word is 16 bits. A “double” word is 32 bits. See 32-bit computer and 64-bit computer.

What is a word in x86?

Why does x86 mean 32-bit?

The x86 moniker comes from the 32bit instruction set. So all x86 processors (without a leading 80 ) run the same 32 bit instruction set (and hence are all compatible). So x86 has become a defacto name for that set (and hence 32 bit). AMD’s original 64 bit extension on the x86 set was called AMD64 .

How many bits is a quad word on Intel x86?

64 bits
A “Quadword” (Win32 QWORD ) is 64 bits.

What is the word length on a 16-bit processor?

A 16-bit integer can store 216 (or 65,536) distinct values. In an unsigned representation, these values are the integers between 0 and 65,535; using two’s complement, possible values range from −32,768 to 32,767.