sõnaadresseerimine

Sõnaadresseerimine, also known as word addressing, is a method used in computer architecture to organize and access data within a computer's memory. In this system, memory is divided into fixed-size blocks called words. Each word is assigned a unique address, allowing the processor to directly fetch or store data at that specific location. The size of a word can vary depending on the architecture, commonly being 16, 32, or 64 bits.

When the processor needs to access data, it issues a memory address. This address is then used to locate the corresponding word in memory. Operations are performed on entire words at a time, meaning that if the processor needs to access only a portion of a word, the entire word is still retrieved. This simplifies the memory management hardware and the instruction set of the processor.

Sõnaadresseerimine contrasts with byte-addressing, where each individual byte has a unique address. While byte-addressing offers finer granularity, word-addressing can be more efficient for certain data types and operations, especially when dealing with fixed-size data structures. The choice between word-addressing and byte-addressing is a fundamental design decision in processor architecture, influencing performance and memory access patterns.