Ask HN: Why do we have only 32 bit and 64 bit OS?
8 comments
I worked on ICL computers in the 1970s with 24 bit words made up of four 6 bit bytes. Having just 64 characters limited text output a lot. Having 8 bits was much better and it stuck.
Using 4 or 8 of those is just about address space.
Using 4 or 8 of those is just about address space.
Because 8-16 bit cpu's are fine without. Eg baremetal AVR firmware comes without all the OS bloat, it does one thing only.
What other sizes would you like?
Whatever gets us closer to The Custodian [1]
[1] - https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Custodian
[1] - https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Custodian
because that's what's native to the processors we have.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOPS-10
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TENEX_(operating_system)