Gameboy Development Forum
Discussion about software development for the old-school Gameboys, ranging from the "Gray brick" to Gameboy Color
(Launched in 2008)
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#1 2014-10-14 18:48:38
- a cat
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- Registered: 2014-07-27
- Posts: 98
why can the gameboy use 16 and 32-bit numbers?
i though the gameboy had a 8-bit processor
so i assumed this means it can only work with 8-bit numbers
so why can i do this?:
signed int x;// 16-bit
signed long y;//32-bit
i also dont rely understand how my 64-bit computer can work with 128-bit and 256-bit numbers
so dose anyone know what is rely means when you say a computer is 32-bit or 64-bit?
edit i have found the answer
the 8-bit processor just stores 16 and 32-bit numbers in multiple blocks of 8-bit numbers
and this is the same with a 64-bit processor
correct me if i am wrong
Last edited by a cat (2014-10-15 08:13:09)
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#2 2014-10-15 14:18:11
Re: why can the gameboy use 16 and 32-bit numbers?
a 32 bit computer is a computer with a cpu and alu made up of registers and buses of that size. a bit is a Binary digIT. a bit can only be one or zero so an 8 bit computer can only process numbers between 0 and (2^8)-1 (because 0 counts as a value). So with an 8 bit computer the highest value it can carry (in binary) is 1111 1111 which is 255 or (2^8)-1.
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#3 2014-10-15 16:47:25
- a cat
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- Registered: 2014-07-27
- Posts: 98
Re: why can the gameboy use 16 and 32-bit numbers?
so it can store 16-bit numbers bye using 2 8-bit registers?
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#4 2014-10-16 11:51:21
Re: why can the gameboy use 16 and 32-bit numbers?
Exactly. This website is a tutorial on gameboy asm, but the first two or three lessons are all about the gameboy hardware.
Last edited by Crona (2014-10-16 11:51:32)
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