Vorlage:Unreferenced Vorlage:N-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, made by IBM, could be considered the first rudimentary 128-bit computer as it used 128-bit floating point registers. Most modern CPUs such as the Pentium and PowerPC have 128-bit vector registers used to store several smaller numbers, such as four 32-bit floating-point numbers. A single instruction can operate on all these values in parallel (SIMD). They are 128-bit processors in the sense that they have 128-bit registers 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 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 addresses are manipulated in 32-bit computers. See also RFC 1924 section 7.
- 128 bits is a common key size for symmetric ciphers in cryptography.
- 128-bit processors could become prevalent when 16 exbibytes of addressable memory is no longer enough (128-bit processors would allow for 274,877,906,944 yottabytes of memory).
- Quadruple precision (128-bit) floating point number can store qword (64-bit) fixed point or integer accurately without losing precision.
- Many modern graphics cards have a 128-bit or 256-bit data bus to memory.
- Sony's Playstation 2 CPU Emotion Engine 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.