8 May
2010
8 May
'10
1:03 p.m.
On 5/7/2010 1:08 AM, Fred Cisin wrote:
Ah, so a Z80 is a 16 bit processor (IX, IY, SP and PC are all 16 bits,
and there is no documented way to use half of them (Yes I do know about
some of the undocumented ways)).
Is the size of the data bus irrelevant?
(There have been people who maintain that THAT is the measure of the
processor!)
They're wrong :-). The "size" of the CPU is defined by the size of the
internal registers. I am astonished there is actual discussion debating
this.
I think people who maintain the size of the data bus as being the
measure of a CPU are hardware people who have never optimized an inner
loop in machine code.
Conversely I could claim that those who calim the 8088 is a 16 bit
processor have never wire-wrapped the data bus connections to one, and
found there are only 8 to wire up.
-tony