From: Eric Smith <eric(a)brouhaha.com>
According to its designers, the ALU on the 8080 is 4
bits wide, and
takes 2 cycles for an 8-bit add or subtract. Presumably it takes at
least 4 cycles for a 16-bit add or subtract. The 8080 takes so many
cycles for *anything* that it's not obvious what it does internally on
any given cycle.
It's not. It's 8bit. the cycles are wastes on delivering status and
fetching operands. You do multiple ops for 16bit adds/subs.
What makes the 8080/z80 interesting is the acc has a intermediate
carry for BCD ops.
Allison