Expert: Prince M. Premnath - 3/6/2007

Question
what is a difference between 16bit or 32 bit color,16bit or 32 bit complier,

Answer
Dear Anil Bakshi!
  Bits in terms of colors is actually the number of bits used to store information about a pixel ,

In 16bit  mode each in order to represent a pixel 16 bits are  required

16 bit mode is also described as follows
either by 1:5:5:5 or 5:6:5 , they are bit positions!
in 1:5:5:5 representation , starting from LSb
5: represent Blue color
5: Represent Green color
5: Represent Red color
the 16th bit remain unused ! its also called "alpha bit"

And same definition is applicable in case of 32 bit colors

bits in case of computer actually refers to memory addressing , processing capability , and so on .
If the bit length is high then it can address more memory location , same in case the bit length is high Then the process execution is also be fast !

Let us assume , in order to perform a 16bit ( say integer ) addition in a 8 bit machine , it will preform the operation in 2 pass , ie it will split the given work in two halves each of 8 bits !
So the computing time is twice ! where its equal if in case of 16bit machine !

Thanks and regards !
prince M. Premnath