256-bit computing: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 11:02, 9 January 2023

Revision as of 22:41, 18 January 2023

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A 256-bit register can store 2²⁵⁶ different values. The range of [[integer]] values that can be stored in 256 bits depends on the [[Integer (computer science)#Value and representation|integer representation]] used.

The maximum value of an unsigned 256-bit integer is 2²⁵⁶ − 1, written in decimal as 115,{{Zwsp}}792,{{Zwsp}}089,{{Zwsp}}237,{{Zwsp}}316,{{Zwsp}}195,{{Zwsp}}423,{{Zwsp}}570,{{Zwsp}}985,{{Zwsp}}008,{{Zwsp}}687,{{Zwsp}}907,{{Zwsp}}853,{{Zwsp}}269,{{Zwsp}}984,{{Zwsp}}665,{{Zwsp}}640,{{Zwsp}}564,{{Zwsp}}039,{{Zwsp}}457,{{Zwsp}}584,{{Zwsp}}007,{{Zwsp}}913,{{Zwsp}}129,{{Zwsp}}639,{{Zwsp}}935 or approximately as 1.1579 x 10⁷⁷.

256-bit processors could be used for addressing directly up to 2²⁵⁶ bytes. Already 2¹²⁸ (for [[128-bit computing|128-bit]] addressing) would greatly exceed the total data stored on Earth as of 2018, which has been estimated to be around 33.3 [[zettabyte]]s (over 2⁷⁵ bytes).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Reinsel |first1=David |last2=Gantz |first2=John |last3=Rydning |first3=John |title=The Digitization of the World |date=November 2018 |publisher=IDC |page=6 |url=https://www.seagate.com/files/www-content/our-story/trends/files/idc-seagate-dataage-whitepaper.pdf |access-date=27 October 2022}}</ref>