If you are interested in processor chips of 128 bit, just read the following content!
128 Bit Processor, Yes or No?
In general, currently, there is no 128-bit processor.
Why not create a 128 bit CPU?
The bit-ness of a processor refers to its ALU width.
logical operations on 128 bit numbers in a single instruction.
However, do you really need it?
No, we dont really!
Only important enough problems can benefit from manipulating 128-bit words in a single instruction.
We hardly come across such a problem in our daily usage of the computer.
Thus, processor manufacturers dont think its worthy of producing a 128-bit processor.
A 128-bit wide ALU means there has to be 128-bit wide data path, which occupies more silicon area.
And, the 128-bit data will come from somewhere and go somewhere.
So, there have to be larger registers, cache, etc.
other memory storages to ensure the wide ALU operates smoothly.
All in all, we can already perform arbitrary width arithmetic on any processor.
A narrow ALU does perform big computations though with limit(s).
The common limit is the speed.
Will We Have a 128-bit Processor?
So, there is no 128-bit processor until now and probably not in the future.
Yet, 128-bit registers are already used for parallel processing and floating-point in 32-bit and 64-bit computers.
Also, 128 bits are commonly applied for encryption keys like 128-bit SSL encryption and AES 128-bit encryption.
The ICL 2900 Series provides a 128-bit accumulator and its instruction set includes 128-bit floating-point and packed decimal arithmetic.
Some compilers also support 128-bit integer arithmetic such as the GCC C compiler 4.6 and later.
A 128-bit bang out offered by C compiler is available in Perl relying on the Math::Int128 module.
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