Consider a hypothetical 32-bit microprocessor having 32-bit instructions compose

Question

Consider a hypothetical 32-bit microprocessor having 32-bit instructions compose of two fields: the first byte contains the opcode and the remainder the immediate operand or an operand address.

a. What is the maximum directly addressable memory capacity (assume that these addresses are addresses to specific bytes)?

- Would this just be 32 bits converted to bytes since it is asking for total capacity? Or do I need to subtract the opcode and then just convert that to bytes?

b. What if the addresses refer to 32-bit words? How much memory can be addresses now (answer in bytes):

- Would 2^32-8 be right for this once? If so, why.

Explanation / Answer

Ans:

a)We know that 1 byte = 8 bits.
So that,
=>2^(32-8)
=> 2^24
=> 16 MB

b) We need needs 24 bits (24-bit addresses). Because of 2^32-8=2^24
And IR needs 32 bits.

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