128-bit

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

128-bit

There are currently no mainstream general-purpose processors built to operate on 128-bit integers or addresses, though a number of processors do operate on 128-bit data. System/370

System/370

The IBM System/370 was a model range of IBM mainframes announced on June 30, 1970 as the successors to the System/360 family. The series maintained backward compatibility with the S/360, allowing an easy migration path for customers; this, plus improved performance, were the dominant themes of the product announcement....
, made by IBM

IBM

International Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue" , is a multinational corporation computer technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, New York, United States....
, could be considered the first rudimentary 128-bit computer as it used 128-bit floating point registers. Most modern CPUs such as the Pentium

Pentium

Introduced on March 22, 1993, the original Pentium was the first superscalar x86 architecture microprocessor. Its fifth-generation x86 microarchitecture was a direct extension of the 80486 architecture with dual integer pipeline s, a faster FPU unit, wider data bus, and features for further reduced address calculation latency....
and PowerPC

PowerPC

PowerPC is a RISC instruction set architecture created by the 1991 Apple Inc.?IBM?Motorola alliance, known as AIM alliance. Originally intended for personal computers, PowerPC CPUs have since become popular embedded system and high-performance processors....
have 128-bit vector registers used to store several smaller numbers, such as four 32-bit floating-point numbers.

Discussion

Ask a question about '128-bit'

Start a new discussion about '128-bit'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

There are currently no mainstream general-purpose processors built to operate on 128-bit integers or addresses, though a number of processors do operate on 128-bit data. System/370

System/370

IBM

Pentium

PowerPC

SIMD

In computing, SIMD is a technique employed to achieve data level parallelism....
). They are 128-bit processors in the sense that they have 128-bit registers

Processor register

In computer architecture, a processor register is a small amount of Computer storage available on the CPU whose contents can be accessed more quickly than storage available elsewhere....
and in some cases a 128-bit ALU, but they do not operate on individual numbers that are 128 binary digits in length.

Uses

IPv6
IPv6

Internet Protocol version 6 is the next-generation Internet layer protocol for packet -switched internetworking and the Internet. IPv4 is the dominant Internet Protocol version, and was the first to receive widespread use....
addresses are 128 bits wide. Having a processor capable of manipulating 128-bit integers could simplify handling of IPv6 addresses, since addresses could be stored in a single register, much as IPv4
IPv4

Internet Protocol version 4 is the fourth revision in the development of the Internet Protocol and it is the first version of the protocol to be widely deployed....
addresses are manipulated in 32-bit computers. See also RFC 1924 section 7.
128 bits is a common key size
Key size

In cryptography, key size or key length is the size of the key used in a cryptographic algorithm . An algorithm's key length is distinct from its cryptographic security, which is a logarithmic measure of the fastest known computational attack on the algorithm, also measured in bits....
for symmetric ciphers in cryptography
Cryptography

Cryptography is the practice and study of hiding information. In modern times cryptography is considered a branch of both mathematics and computer science and is affiliated closely with information theory, computer security and engineering....
. It is also the size of Globally Unique Identifier
Globally Unique Identifier

A globally unique identifier or GUID is a special type of identifier used in software applications in order to provide a reference number which is unique in any context , for example, in defining the internal reference for a type of access point in a software application, or for creating unique database keys in a database....
.
128-bit processors could become prevalent when 16 exbibyte
Exbibyte

An exbibyte is a unit of information or computer storage, abbreviated EiB.The exbibyte is related to the ambiguous exabyte, which officially means 1018 bytes, but is commonly used to mean exbibyte....
s of addressable memory is no longer enough (128-bit processors would allow for 274,877,906,944 yottabyte
Yottabyte

A yottabyte is a unit of information or computer storage equal to one septillion bytes. It is commonly abbreviated YB. As of 2009, no computer has yet achieved one yottabyte of storage....
s of memory). However, physical limits make such large amounts of memory currently impossible.
Quadruple precision
Quadruple precision

In computing, quadruple precision is a computer numbering format that occupies four storage locations in computer memory at address, address+1, address+2, and address+3....
(128-bit) floating point
Floating point

In computing, floating point describes a system for numerical representation in which a String of digits represents a rational number.The term floating point refers to the fact that the radix point can "float": that is, it can be placed anywhere relative to the Significant figures of the number....
number can store qword (64-bit) fixed point
Fixed-point arithmetic

In computing, a fixed-point number representation is a real data type for a number that has a fixed number of digits after the radix point . Fixed-point number representation can be compared to the more complicated floating point number representation....
number or integer
Integer (computer science)

In computer science, the term integer is used to refer to a data type which represents some finite subset of the mathematical integers. These are also known as integral data types....
accurately without losing precision
Accuracy and precision

In the fields of science, engineering, industry and statistics, accuracy is the degree of closeness of a Measure d or calculated quantity to its actual Value ....
.
Many graphics cards have a 128-bit or 256-bit data bus to memory.
Sony
Sony

is a multinational corporation list of conglomerates corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, and one of the world's largest media conglomerates with revenue exceeding US$99.1 billion ....
's Playstation 2
PlayStation 2

The PlayStation 2 is a History of video game consoles video game console manufactured by Sony. The successor to the PlayStation, and the predecessor to the PlayStation 3, the PlayStation 2 forms part of the PlayStation of video game consoles....
CPU Emotion Engine
Emotion Engine

The Emotion Engine is a CPU developed and manufactured by Sony Computer Entertainment and Toshiba for use in the Sony PlayStation 2 video game console....
is advertised as a 128 bit processor. It has 128-bit SIMD registers, like many processors, but is only a 64-bit processor in the traditional sense as it can only use 64-bit memory addresses. Most high-end CPUs today have 64-bit memory address; there are only very few true 128-bit supercomputer chips.
The AS/400 virtual instruction set defines all pointers as 128-bit. This gets translated to the hardware's real instruction set as required, allowing the underlying hardware to change without needing to recompile the software. Past hardware was 32-bit CISC, while current hardware is 64-bit PowerPC. Because pointers are defined to be 128-bit, future hardware may be 128-bit without software incompatibility.

History

An 128-bit multicomparator was described by researchers in 1976.

A CPU with 128bit multimedia extensions was designed by researchers in 1999.