What Is Windows 32?
Windows 32 is a term often used in computer literature, yet many people do not have a good understanding of what it means. It generally pertains to a "32 bit" type of Microsoft Windows operating system.
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Significance
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Windows 32 is a reference to a Microsoft Windows operating system based on a 32-bit architecture. This means that it is built to run on a 32-bit or higher processor architecture.
32 Bit Processor Architecture
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A processor operating on a 32-bit architecture is capable of addressing a 32-bit long address space in system memory. This means 2^32 bits long, which is 4 gigabytes of memory.
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32 Bit Windows Architecture
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A 32-bit Windows architecture means that the version of Windows supports a processor's capability of addressing 4 gigabytes of memory. This means that each application is assigned 4 gigabytes of virtual memory to use.
Types
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There are many types of Windows 32 operating systems. These include the series of operating systems beginning with Windows 95 and completing with Windows Millennium. Windows XP and Windows Vista also have versions based on 32-bit architecture.
Windows 64
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More recent operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows 7, are based on a 64-bit architecture which allows much more memory to be allocated to an application.
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References
- Photo Credit Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of Javier Aroche
