Our modern CPUs include a number of valuable features. In this video, you’ll learn about the differences between 32-bit and 64-bit processors, the advantages associated with ARM processors, and how CPU cores can be a useful measurement of processing power.
If you look at the system information for your computer, you’ll see a lot of interesting information. For example, on this computer, the system type is a 64-bit operating system, and it is an ARM-based processor. And you may be wondering, what do those specifications refer to?
Well, let’s start with the 64-bit operating system. In today’s modern world, we tend to see two different kinds of operating systems– a 32-bit and a 64-bit. This is referring to the capabilities of the CPU on your computer and how much information it is able to process at any particular time. It also refers to the total amount address space that a single CPU could reference.
For example, a 32-bit processor can store 1s and 0s to a maximum of 2 to the 32nd power. And that is a lot of information that we are storing into the memory of a system. But with today’s technologies, a 32-bit address size is relatively small. That’s why we created a 64-bit processor, which can store 2 to the 64th power of total information. And you can see that very large value is listed on the screen.
If we want to put this in a bit more of accessible terms, you can specify a 32-bit processor can reference 4 gigabytes of memory, where a 64-bit processor can reference 17,000,000,000 gigabytes of memory. Now, obviously, the 64-bit operating system that I’m using on my computer probably can’t reference 17,000,000,000 gigabytes, and my computer probably couldn’t support that much memory inside of a system. But many operating systems can scale up to very large amounts. And they’re able to do that because they’re running a 64-bit processor.
As you can imagine, there are a number of differences in operation between a 32-bit operating system and a 64-bit operating system. For example, if you’re running a 64-bit OS, your hardware drivers that you’re using on that operating system need to be written for a 64-bit operating system. If you’re using a 32-bit operating system, then you need to make sure your hardware drivers are written for a 32-bit OS.
In the world of Intel processors, you’ll often see the 32-bit processors referenced as an x86 processor. That’s a reference back to the older 8086 style CPU. And you’ll see 64-bit processors referenced as x64.
The applications that run on these different operating systems are also different. For example, a 32-bit operating system cannot run applications that were made for a 64-bit operating system. The reverse, however, is usually true. A 64-bit operating system usually can run 32-bit applications.
If you were to look at your Windows operating system, you’ll notice that the Program Files folder has different areas depending on the type of applications that you’re installing. For example, all of your 32-bit applications are being installed in program files x86, and your 64-bit applications are simply stored in program files.
There’s another CPU architecture that has become very popular in our modern world, and it’s an architecture created by ARM Limited. This architecture is named Advanced Risk Machine, which is also abbreviated with the word ARM. This is the company that creates the specification for the chip, and they license that specification to third parties.
ARM processors tend to be very, very efficient. They use less power, less heat, and they’re very fast at processing information. This is why we see that 99% of the mobile phones that we are using these days have ARM processors. And we’re starting to see more and more desktop and laptop computers use ARM as the primary processor inside of their devices as well.
We often refer to these processors from Intel and AMD and ARM as CPUs, individual single devices. But inside of that single CPU package are a number of individual processors referred to as processor cores. You’ll often see a processor referred to by the number of cores inside of that processor. It might be an 8 core or a 16 core processor. And inside of each one of these cores, you will often find an individual CPU and cache memory that is specific to that core. This means multiple cores can perform multiple instructions simultaneously, thereby increasing the overall efficiency of that computing process.
If you were to look at a magnified view of a CPU die, you can almost make out the individual cores. This is a rendering of what appears to be a 16-core CPU. You can almost make out the individual CPUs for each core inside of this chip, and you can see where the cache memory is located for each of the cores inside of this CPU.