Why aren't there 128-bit Operating Systems?

Why aren't there 128-bit Operating Systems? 

This is why there isn't a 128-bit operating system. There are mainly 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems?

So if you want to learn why there aren't 128-bit operating systems, then you're in the right place.

Keep Reading!

Bits and Operating Systems

Currently, there are 32-bit and 64-bit processors, operating systems, and programs.

Before these existed, programmers worked with 8-bit and 16-bit systems. Therefore, it would be logical to assume that new devices and programs with higher bit depth will appear along with the progression of technical development.

The logical next step should be 128-bits. But does that make sense? let's figure it out.

The digit capacity in computer science is the number of bits that a device can simultaneously process. There is :

• Processor's bit capacity- the capacity of its machine world.
• Data bus capacity- the operating system's capacity.
• Capacity of programs and applications.

All these are different concepts overlap and may partially depend on each other. At the lowest level is the processor capacity.

That's Why There's No 128-bit Operating System

We have to consider several issues:

• Challenges related to bit depth.
• Processor's bit capacity and the bit version of OS and how they are related.
• Growth of bit depth occurred historically and why it has stopped at the moment.

Increasing the system capacity over 64 at present may be of interest only for a narrow range of applied problems.

With the growth of the bit depth, the calculation accuracy also increases.

The 128-bit (or higher) architecture is useful for mathematically intensive operations such as graphics, cryptography, and complex system modeling, but not for operating systems.

Based on the preceding conversation, we can conclude that a system with a 64-bit processor is now sufficient for the bulk of users.

The 64-bit system offers enough computer performance capacity for most professional applications such as :

• Physics
• Mathematics 
• Geodesy
• Cartography
• Cryptography
• Databases

64 or even 32 bits are large enough for most practical calculations. A wider memory bus can speed up the loading of instructions and data, which is a lot.

Still, each instruction also requires more memory and processing power when it uses more bits.

A higher bit depth of an operating system does not directly mean higher speed.

Increasing the system's bit capacity, contrary to expectations, does not give a performance increase in proportion to the increasing in the capacity and possibly.

On the contrary, it will slow down due the need to process longer addresses.

 So, we consider 128-bit operating systems will not be appearing at your local computer store anytime soon.

But maybe you might work on a 128-bit operating system 10 years from now.

We'll just have to wait and see.

Processor's Bit Capacity

The main characteristic of a processor is its clock frequency. It is the number of cycles per second. But the bit capacity of the processor,  in turn, determines the size of data processing per cycle, which the processor exchanges with the Random Access Memory (RAM).

If the size of data per clock is 1 byte, then the processor is called 8-bit. If the size is 2 bytes, the processor is 16-bit. If the size is 4 bytes, the processor is 32-bit. If the size is 8 byte, then it is a 64-bit processor.

Historically, an increase in processor bit capacity is associated more with increasing the address space, increasing the length and complexity of the executed instructions.

At the same time, the increase in the speed of processors due to this increase is not considered, probably due to the insignificance of this value.

In 1978, the rea of x86 began with the creations of the Intel i8086 microprocessor. In the same year, the i8088 was developed; its primary difference was the 8-bit external data bus, which provided compatibility with the 8-bit binding and memory used earlier.

In 1982, Intel announced i80286, which is the second-generation 16-bit x86 compatible microprocessor. It is an improved version of the Intel 8086 processor.

The main advantage of the new processor are 3 to 6 times higher performance and additional addressing modes. However, its main attribute was its compatibility with existing software.

In 1985, Intel released the i80386, perhaps the most significant event in the history of x86 processors. It was revolutionary: a 32-bit multitasking processor with the ability to run multiple programs simultaneously.

The Intel 386 had significantly improved memory management over the i80286 and built-in multitasking, which enables the Microsoft Windows and OS/2 operating system development.

In fact, until recently, most processors were nothing more that fast 386s.

A lot of modern software uses the dame 386 architecture but works faster.

In 1989, Intel released the 80486 (also known as i486, Intel 486, or simply 486th). It is a 32-bit scalar x86-compatible microprocessor of the fourth generation built on a hybrid CISC-RISC core.

In 2002, Intel proposed a 64-bit architecture to replace the Intel processors with AMD(AMD64). Intel presented a new designation EM64T (Extended Memory 64-bit Technology), to keep up with their competitors.

Currently, both 32-bit and 64-bit processors are in use. Some clarification is needed here. In the designation of processor architectures, we meet the abbreviations x86 and x64.

X86 is a 32-bit processor, while X64 is a 64-bit. Why is the processors 32-bit, and is the architecture called x86? That name came from the early processor models that ended in 86 and had a 32-bit architecture: 8086,80286, 80386, 80486.

With the transition to 64-bit architecture, the bit depth of internal registers of 64-bit processors doubled (from 32-bit to 64-bits). As a result, 32-bit x86 code commands got 64-bit counterparts.

In addition, due to the expansion of the address bus width, the amount of memory addressed by the processor has increases significantly.

One of the main differences between x86 and x64 systems is the use of the computer's RAM

The RAM usage limit for 32-bit systems is 2^32 = 4,294,967,296 bits or 4GB. If the device has more than 4GB of RAM, the system will not use the rest. For 64-bits, it will be 2^64=18,446,744,073,709,551,616 or 18 million terabytes.

When will the size of RAM exceeds this value?

The main disadvantage of x64 is that 64-bit programs use much more RAM to complicate their work. Therefore, if you have only a little bit RAM, it doesn't make sense to install x64.

Besides, you need to consider that the operating system (OS) itself also uses part of the RAM.

The primary rationale for implementing 64-bit architecture is the development of applications that need large address space. 

The 4GB RAM limit of 32-bit systems affect the performance of such resource-intensive programs.

When the application of a 64-bit architecture is more efficient:

• High-performance servers and database management systems where the speed of work increases many times with an increase in the amount of RAM
• Design systems, modeling of structures, and technological processes such as geodesy and cartography
• Computing systems for mathematical and scientific calculations and simulation of physical experiments
• Cryptography, the strength of which grows with the growth of the length of the operands and keys
• Modelling 3D situations

Also, 64-bit processors allow you to process huge numbers efficiently. Computing with large numbers or high precision requirements is one of the strong points of the 64-bit architecture because even an ordinary floating-point number fits exactly into 64-bits. This feature is in demand in some particular operations, such as encryption or media coding.

The bit version of the operating system

As we learned above, the bit capacity of the processor is primary. To choose the right OS, you need to know your processor's bit rate and RAM amount. If you have an x64-bit processor and RAM that is more than 4GB (ideally from 6GB), it is definitely worth installing an x64-bit system.

If the amount of RAM in your system is precisely 4GB, sometimes people will install an x64 bit system so that they won't lose half a gigabyte of memory. But, this is a fallacy because the x64 system uses more memory for its operation, which makes such an installation impractical.

When the amount of RAM does not exceed 4GB, and the processor also operates in x32 mode, there is nothing left but to install the x32 OS.

What is the difference between x64? A 64-bit OS "sees" large amounts of memory, knows how to work with them, and allows you to run 64-bit applications.

For every bit you add to the OS architecture, we double the number of available addresses. Addresses are the number of combinations that you can form with a given number of bits.

64-bit OS will also allow you to run regular 32-bit programs as well. Thus, you don't need settings for this. It's just that a 64-bit system has a subsystem for executing 32-bit applications.

Therefore, you can successfully install and work with both 32-bit and 64-bit applications. However, while 32-bit applications can run in a 64-bit OS, it doesn't work the other way around.

The next technical point is that 64-bit operating systems require 64-bit drivers.

As a rule, all modern PC devices, laptops, and peripherals have two driver versions on the accompanying installation disc; that is, 32-bit and 64-bit. When working with modern devices, there should be no problems with this.

128-Bit Operating Systems

In computer science and computer technology, 128-bit is used to designate structures and data types, which occupy 128-bits of memory in the computer or 16 bytes of memory.

In 128-bit computer architectures, all the foundations such as registers, address buses, or data buses are 128-bits.

Researcher described the 128-bit multi-comparator in 1975. The design of a central processing unit (CPU) with 128-bit multimedia extensions appeared in 1999.

Unbeknownst to many of us, we are already using 128-bit modes. Yes, there are no mainstream general-purpose processors that can handle 16-bytes at a time.

However, 128-bit capacity has been present on the general market for at least fifteen years in a limited form. There have also been experimental and commercial developments even earlier, most notably DEC VAX modifications.

The beginning was laid by the MMX/SSE "multimedia" instructions in the late 90s, manipulating 128-bits, albeit not as a single integer but divisible into several numbers.

Today the latest version of the most popular OS, MS Windows, will refuse to work on a computer whose processor and motherboard do not support the CMPXCHG16B assembler instruction, which operates with 128-bit number.

Do you need 128-bit OS

64-bit programs give programs direct access to memory space roughly a billion times larger than today's PCs.

Still, even for specialized supercomputers, this limitation can be overcome by other architectural changes beyond merely increasing the number of bits.

Most numbers rarely exceeded a few million in a typical computer program, much less than 64-bit numbers, which amounts to billions of billions.

Computer programs also commonly use so-called floating point numbers, which represent fractional numbers. Here, the number of bits improves the precision.

However, floating point bit precision has little to do with operating system bits or memory size.

Jumping to 64-bit allows you to process numbers up to 64-bits in one arithmetic operation.

However, the need to work with numbers beyond two billion is infrequent. Thus, the real benefits of this innovation are possible for cryptography and serious scientific research.