• @timhh@programming.dev
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    016 days ago

    Wrong again. It depends on the CPU. They can absolutely read a single byte and they will do if you’re reading from non-idempotent memory.

    If you’re reading from idempotent memory they won’t read a byte or a word. They’ll likely read a whole cache line (usually 64 bytes).

    And if you read the ARM article you linked, it literally says so.

    Where?

    Thus any compiler worth their salt will align all byte variables to words for faster memory access.

    No they won’t because it isn’t faster. The CPU will read the whole cache line that contains the byte.

    RTFM

    Well, I would but no manual says that because it’s wrong!

      • @timhh@programming.dev
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        16 days ago

        What docs? A bool is one byte. Get over it. Find me one normal compiler/architecture in C, C++, Go, Rust, Zig, etc. where it is not. Go on.