How many bits?

Well I can see that this question yielded a slew of responses. I think we should once and for all decide this bit scenario.

1) Are we talking Number of Lines in the Address Bus to the Memory
from the CPU. Choices are 16, 20, 24, and 32 bit. The width of the address bus tells us how much memory RAM/ROM we can have on the system. Example: 20 bit address bus gives us 1megabyte of addressable space.

2) Are we talking about the width of the DATA bus to the CPU. This is the pathway which gives the CPU its data to crunch. In other words, the biggest value that the CPU can fetch at one time. Modern Choices are 32, 64, 128 bit.

3) Are we talking about the Largest integer value(bitwise) that the CPU can Process in Math Computations. IE size of the largest register. Example: PowerPC like the one in GC has 32- 32 bit integer registers and 32- 64bit floating point registers which are used for crunching real numbers like this 3.242434 * 321.44232 = ? .

4) Number of Colors that the Graphics Sub-system supports, IE 4bit color(16 colors(palletized)), 8 bit color(256 colors(palletized)), 15 bit(32K (Direct RGB)), 24 bit(16million (DirectRGB)), or 32bit(24bit + transparency channel or alpha (DirectRGB))

Hope that this gives some idea on bits in the computer.:D


seen

Namco's System 1 (Pac-Mania, Dragon Spirit) is 8-bit also with 3 6809s and a HD63701 each running at 1.536MHz, but it is one HELL of an 8-bit board. The GPU in it has to be strong.

As for Turbo Grafx- Tatsujin looks better than the Genesis version and has better sound. Street Fighter II' CE lost a layer of parallax but it has more color than the Genny version.

The 16 in TG-16 refers to the GPU.

Bits mean nothing. If they did, then the Jaguar CD setup would've trounced the PlayStation and Saturn.

I remember when someone who wrote a letter to Mega Play said that the Sega CD would put the Neo-Geo's specs to shame with its dual 68000 processors. Pah.

like it was said when it comes to GC and Xbox it depends on the GPU or CPU Xbox's CPU is 32 GC's CPU is a hybrid 32 - 64 bit chip

as far as i can tell normally when peopel say what is the bit of a system theyre refering to the first one that Seen is talking about which is the size or how much can be transefered between the CPU and ram

i thought the GPU in the GC was 256 bit also but im probably wrong

I'm pretty certain about all of these.

Gamecube- 64 bit all around

XBox- 32 bit CPU, 256 bit graphics

Jaguar- 16 bit CPU, two 32 bit graphics chips, called "64-bit graphics" by adding.

3DO- 32 bit

Atari 2600, 5200, 7800- 8, all of em.

Game Boy- 8 bit

TG-16- 8 bit CPU, 16 bit graphics chip

NeoGeo- It's 16, with an 8 bit coprocessor. Some call it 24 bit (that was the marketing line), but it's 16 bit. Genesis had an 8 bit coprocessor as well, but no one calls that 24 bit.

Game.com- 8 bit

Wonderswan- 16 bit

Virtual Boy- 32, similar to GBA


Bits really aren't as relevant as early 90s marketing campaigns would have you think. GC is 64 bit, and Xbox is 32 bit. There are alot of other factors.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Frogacuda
I'm pretty certain about all of these.

Gamecube- 64 bit all around

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nope its a 32 - 64 bit hybrid in the CPU and the GPU is at least 128 if not 256 so its not 64 bit all around

Alright...I am here to lay down the myths and facts about "bits" when it comes to microprocessors.

My qualifications include 1 yr as a student in a Computer Engineering program.

When referring to bits on the CPU, it generally has to do with the bit size of the data bus registers. Data Bus registers are used to bring data into the CPU. The CPU can then do the calculation needed.

An example, an 8-bit processor can only read a number up to 15. Because in binary an 8-bit number would look like this "0000" with each spot representing 2 to a power. "0000"=0 "0001"=1 "0010"=2 "0011"=3 "0100"=4...."1000"=8 so with every value turned "on" or "1" an 8-bit processor can only read a value up to 15. So to keep things simple, if a 8-bit processor had to count up to 30. It would take 2 clock cycles to reach 30. A 16-bit processor can do it in one pass. But if the 8-bit processor can do 3 clock cycles in the same time to one of the 16-bit processor. The 8-bit processor would be considered faster. But another important fact is that a 16-bit processor has access to a larger amount of memory locations than 8-bit processors can. And sometimes that can make a big difference.

So in general it all comes down to a combination of clock cycles(i.e. MHZ) and the size of the registers.

**Class Dismissed**

Here are the correct answers:

Gamecube- 64

XBox- 32

Jaguar- 16

3DO- 32

Atari 2600, 5200, 7800- 8

Game Boy- 8

TG-16- 8

NeoGeo- 16

Game.com- 8

Wonderswan- 16

Virtual Boy- 32

That is all. :p

I guess Frogacuda beat me to the correct list. Oh well. Just for the record, the Neo Geo is essentially a Genesis with more RAM. Both have a 16-bit Motorola 68000 CPU and an 8-bit Zilog Z-80 coprocessor.

Mr_B:

2^8=256
An 8 bit register goes to 255, not 15. You're thinking of 4 bit. The only 4 bit game system I know of is the Milton Bradley Microvision, which not-so-coincidentally featured a 16x16 resolution.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Yoshi
I guess Frogacuda beat me to the correct list. Oh well. Just for the record, the Neo Geo is essentially a Genesis with more RAM. Both have a 16-bit Motorola 68000 CPU and an 8-bit Zilog Z-80 coprocessor.

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I thought the Neo Geo itself didn't have any RAM. It's all in the carts, right? That's why the cart games got bigger and bigger and the Neo CD (that did have RAM in the system) hit it's limit and couldn't keep up.