Word-addressable

Word-addressable is a computer architecture term.

In computer architecture, a word is an ordered set of bytes or bits that is the normal unit in which information may be stored, transmitted, or operated on within a given computer.

If a computer's memory is word-addressable then each word in memory is assigned its own memory address. This means that the processor is able to address and fetch only complete words from the memory. Such computers are sometimes called word machines[1] (in contrast to byte machines[2]).

Typically, if a processor has a fixed-length instruction set, then the instruction length equals the word length.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Wortmaschine" (in German). Archived from the original on 2017-04-09. Retrieved 2017-04-09.
  2. ↑ Hansen, H. R. (1986). Wirtschaftsinformatik (in German). I (5 ed.). Stuttgart, Germany: Gustav Fischer. p. 125.
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