Re: Keeping other stuff with addresses (was: What is an N-bit machine?)

Thomas Koenig <tkoenig@netcologne.de> writes:

Anton Ertl <anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at> schrieb:

anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) writes:

John Levine <johnl@taugh.com> writes:

These days I'd say the relevant N is the size of arithmetic registers but a
lot of marketers appear to disagree with me.

>
Which arithmetic registers on an Intel processor?  The 64 bits of a
GPR?  The 128 bits of an XMM register?  The 256 bits of a YMM
register?  The 512 bits of a ZMM register?

>
The Cray-1 is even more interesting in that respect.  Is it a 4096-bit
machine?

>
If you consider the widest arithmetic it is capable of in one piece,
it is a 64-bit machine.

That's not John Levine's criterion.

BTW, with your criterion, the Zen5 in the Ryzen AI 370HX is a 256-bit
machine, while the Zen5 in the Ryzen 9600X is a 512-bit machine.
According to John Levine's criterion they are both 512-bit machines.
According to me they are both 64-bit machines.  John Levine's and my
criteria are architectural, yours is implementation-oriented.

- anton
--
'Anyone trying for "industrial quality" ISA should avoid undefined behavior.'
  Mitch Alsup, <c17fcd89-f024-40e7-a594-88a85ac10d20o@googlegroups.com>