How is 8086 processor 1MB when 2^20 bits is not 1MB its 1Mb?

Question

How can 8086 microprocessor have 1 Mega Byte memory when it can address upto 2^20 bits which are equal to 1 Mega Bits not 1 Mega Bytes.

Addressing is using bytes. You can't address individual bits in 8086. — Jester, Aug 22 '17 at 15:36
Did you read somewhere that it addresses up to 2^20 *bits* rather than *bytes*? — lurker, Aug 22 '17 at 15:38
@Jester Except with bt, bts, btr, and btc. only from the 80386 on though. — fuz, Aug 22 '17 at 15:57
@fuz of course 8086 doesn't have those. The x86 cpus that do have those, can address more than 1MB ;) — Jester, Aug 22 '17 at 16:01
The address is *using* 20 bits, but each memory address refers to a byte. — Bo Persson, Aug 22 '17 at 17:27
@ThomasJager: all it needs is an answer with positive score to be a valid dup target. — Peter Cordes, Aug 23 '17 at 23:11

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 22 '17 at 15:48

3

[...] it can address upto 2^20 bits [...]

No, it can address 2²⁰ locations. Each location is one byte, which means that 1 mebibyte is addressable.

answered Aug 22 '17 at 15:48

1 Answers1