A computer has 256MB of memory.
Each word in this computer is 16 bytes.
How many bits are needed to address each word in memory?

Is this a trick question?

(The answer depends on the machine's addressing scheme ;) )

3.

A computer has 256MB of memory.
Each word in this computer is 16 bytes.
How many bits are needed to address each word in memory?

Assuming by 256MB you mean 2^28, you'd need 28 bits to address all the bytes; to address only words, you'd need (2^28)/16 = (2^28)/(2^4) = 2^24, or 24 bits.

However, the number of bits needed really depends on how much memory the computer _could_ have, not what it happens to have.

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