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how 16 bits address lines address 64KB?
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Problem
" The 8080 was an 8-bit CPU, meaning it processed 8 bits of information at a time. However, it had 16 address lines coming out of it. The ‘‘bitness’’ of a CPU—how many bits wide its general-purpose registers are—is important, but to my view the far more important measure of a CPU’s effectiveness is how many address lines it can muster in one operation. In 1974, 16 address lines was aggressive, because memory was extremely expensive, and most machines had 4K or 8K bytes (remember, that means 4,000 or 8,000) at most—and some had a lot less.
Sixteen address lines will address 64K bytes. If you count in binary (which computers always do) and limit yourself to 16 binary columns, you can count from 0 to 65,535. (The colloquial ‘‘64K’’ is shorthand for the number 66,536.) This means that every one of 65,536 separate memory locations can have its own unique address, from 0 up to 65,535."
my questions are how 16 bits address lines can address 64KB?,since 16 bits can only address 64kbps.
and what is segment?
thanks in advance
Sixteen address lines will address 64K bytes. If you count in binary (which computers always do) and limit yourself to 16 binary columns, you can count from 0 to 65,535. (The colloquial ‘‘64K’’ is shorthand for the number 66,536.) This means that every one of 65,536 separate memory locations can have its own unique address, from 0 up to 65,535."
my questions are how 16 bits address lines can address 64KB?,since 16 bits can only address 64kbps.
and what is segment?
thanks in advance
Solution
One address addresses one byte. Using 16 bits, you can write 65536 addresses (from 0 to 65535, that's 65536 different addresses), and address 65536 bytes. 65536 bytes is 64kB. In computer science, b is bit, B is byte. The byte is the smallest amount of memory you can address. The question "what is k ?". k is kilo, in international system of units, a kilo unit is 1000 units, but, when dealing with memory, a kilo unit is 2^10=1024 units, (except when dealing with hard drives, for marketing reasons).
64kbps is 64 kilo bits per second. It is a transfer rate, not an amount of memory.
"What is a segment ?" isn't a precise question, segment is a very generic word used in many contexts. I expect that the 8086 segments are accurate in your context, even if it's some 24-bit addresses with 16-bit CPU instead of 16-bit addresses with 8-bit CPU.
64kbps is 64 kilo bits per second. It is a transfer rate, not an amount of memory.
"What is a segment ?" isn't a precise question, segment is a very generic word used in many contexts. I expect that the 8086 segments are accurate in your context, even if it's some 24-bit addresses with 16-bit CPU instead of 16-bit addresses with 8-bit CPU.
Context
StackExchange Computer Science Q#37255, answer score: 5
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