Why More Bits:
World Size of Computer:
You might have heard about 8, 16, 32, or 64 bit computer, etc. This refers to the word size of a particular computer in terms of total number of bits. Word size is an important architectural factor. Small machines have word size of 8, 16, or 32 bits; large machine word size are 64 bits or more. The obvious question that arises to ones mind is that what is the advantage of heaving more number of bits per word instead of heaving more words of smaller size?
For an answer to the above question, imagine a highway with eight lines, and a heavy flow of traffic. It is an expanded to sixteen lanes, the flow of traffic speeds up considerably. "8-bits" refers to the number of lanes on a microchip. Grater bits mean a more rapid flow of electronic signals, in other words, a faster computer. Thus, what an 8-bit computer takes one minute to do, a 32-bit computer can do in one second.
Word Byte Length:
A complete word is a combination of one or more bytes handled together as one unit for processing and may thus be 8, 16, 32 or 64 bits. The length of word varies from machine to machine but it is predetermined for each machine. A computer reads and processes all the bits of the word at a time.
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