Question

I’m crystal clear on different architectures providing 32-bit or 64-bit registers and how that all works out at a low level. However, one thing has always eluded me.. specific terminology for whether you’re 32- or 64- bit. For example:

string XXX;


if(architecture == i386)
  XXX = "32";
else if(architecture == x86_64)
  XXX = "64";

... go on to use variable XXX ...

So, what would I name my variable? Not architecture. Not "bits". Not "bus width" or "register width" (that would seem quite out of place I think)

So what would this variable be named and what would someone say in conversation?

Answer 1

I’d call it wordSize = “xx”, I’d say ‘word size’.