Re:C++ proposal: There are 8 bits in a byte
by Maxatar on Thursday October 17, 2024 @11:13PM
(#41876056)
I don't think the term word has any consistent meaning. Certainly x86 doesn't use the term word to mean smallest addressable unit of memory. The x86 documentation defines a word as 16 bits, but x86 is byte addressable.
ARM is similar, ARM processors define a word as 32-bits, even on 64-bit ARM processors, but they are also byte addressable.
As best as I can tell, it seems like a word is whatever the size of the arithmetic or general purpose register is at the time that the processor was introduced, and even if later a new processor is introduced with larger registers, for backwards compatibility the size of a word remains the same.
ARM is similar, ARM processors define a word as 32-bits, even on 64-bit ARM processors, but they are also byte addressable.
As best as I can tell, it seems like a word is whatever the size of the arithmetic or general purpose register is at the time that the processor was introduced, and even if later a new processor is introduced with larger registers, for backwards compatibility the size of a word remains the same.