What is a 16-bit operating system?

Answer 1

Basically, the difference lies in the way the program process information : 2 bytes at a time for 16 bits, 4 for 32 bits. Older system usually use a 16 bits processor (often with a 32 bits "virtual" capacity), while newer system all use 32 bits processors that can input 4 bytes of information per clock beat for processing. During a single cycle of the CPU processor, a 16-bit program can send 16 bits of instructions to the CPU. A 32-bit program can send twice as many (32 bits) of instructions during a single cycle. Therefore, 32-bit programs are often able to run faster than 16-bit programs but because the speed of a program is effected by so many other factors, a 32-bit program is unlikely to be twice as fast as a 16-bit program