Thread: bits of what?

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    Me -=SoKrA=-'s Avatar
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    bits of what?

    HI all,
    So a friend and I were talking and somehow got to game consoles. Now, he was saying his had 128 bits which according to him is the highest there are. What I'm trying to find out is: 128 bits of what? I don't think that it would be memory, since that would hold 16 chars. It not very likely that it has a 128b video processor, so what do those bits refer to?
    TIA
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    & the hat of GPL slaying Thantos's Avatar
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    It has to do with the graphics. I think 128 bit of info per something. shrug

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    Maybe he is referring to the size of the CPU registers. Typical PC registers are 32 bits (EAX, EBX, ECX, etc). The larger they are the more memory you can address, also the more memory you can move too and from memory at any one time.

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    Registered User H&R's Avatar
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    Mornin all,
    As I understand it, and I'm often wrong. The 128bits refers to the number of data lines available to carry data back and forth. A bit like a 128 lane motorway being better than say a 64 lane one. I think.
    Please feel free to take all the above with a bucket load of salt as I am yet to finish my first cup of Tea and therefore not entirely coherent.

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    Confused Magos's Avatar
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    It refers to the size of the internal registers and buses of the processor.
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    he could have been referring to the GPU internal registers or the bus between the GPU and the CPU

    EDIT: or potentially the connection between the CPU and the main memory...I dont' think he could have been talking about the xbox, but I don't know how other consoles are setup (xbox is just a 733MHz p3 so i doubt its front side bus is 128 bit)
    Last edited by Silvercord; 10-08-2003 at 07:42 AM.

  7. #7
    Me -=SoKrA=-'s Avatar
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    Thanks for answering...
    The first thing I thought was that the size of the registers, but since PCs are going into 64 bits now, I thought it was too big.
    No wonder game consoles cost that much! Woldn't mind getting one of those GPUs for my PC.
    SoKrA-BTS "Judge not the program I made, but the one I've yet to code"
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    GPU would be the best guess. The register size on my gpu at home is 128bit. the parhelia was 512.

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    Board Conservative UnregdRegd's Avatar
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    This talk about "64-bit systems," "128-bit systems," and so on can be very misleading because often some components are one and some are another. For a video game system, overall performance, ease of game development, and selection of games are more important than whether the system is 128 bit or not.
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    According to this link, playstation2 has a 128-bit CPU.

    http://us.playstation.com/hardware/PS2/415007657.asp
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    This talk about "64-bit systems," "128-bit systems," and so on can be very misleading because often some components are one and some are another. For a video game system, overall performance, ease of game development, and selection of games are more important than whether the system is 128 bit or not.
    you are completely correct, you see that is the most obvious reasons developers aim to have their games run on any given 486.

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    Registered User TravisS's Avatar
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    The only benefit to 128 bit CPU in a console would be increased floating point accuracy and otherwise incrseas size numbers, correct?

    After all, there is no way you would need to address that much RAM... I'd be will to say you'd NEVER need to address that much in a PC let alone a console *keeps Bill Gates quote in back of mind*

    Even a 16 bit CPU would be enough for addressing I'm sure, most consoles use less than 64 MB of RAM afterall.

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    speed and bandwidth are factors. the ideal CPU (or GPU for that matter) has the highest internal register size with the highest clock speed, but having both means throwing around a LOT of electricity at once and your system can start farking up. i.e rambus is ridiculously fast but it is a 16 bit architecture where as sdram (including ddr) all have a 64 bit architecutre (i'm not sure if when they say 16 bit and 64 bit if they mean the front side bus, or how many bits the actual memory module can spew into the front side bus at once ... maybe a CE student such as govtcheez can englighten my uneducated heathen ass)

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