title: Word size in bits to bytes conversion confusion
body: <p>I have a pretty elementary question which is somewhat confusing me. It will be great to get some refresher on this. </p>
  
  <p>Every computer has a word size. The word size is the maximum size of the virtual address space. So if we have lets say a <code>32 bit word size</code>, we have a virtual address space that ranges to a max of <code>2^32 values</code>. In references it says <code>2^32 bytes</code>? Why is the range in bytes.</p>
  
  <p>Also, What I am failing to understand is how <code>2^32</code> possible values be a possible address range of <code>4GB</code>? So, my confusion stems from the confusion of turning the <code>32 bit word size</code> into <code>4 byte word size</code>, and then how <code>4 bytes</code>, multiplied <code>2^32</code> times result in <code>4GB</code>.</p>
  
  <p>One way I tried to rationalize it is as follows:</p>
  
  <pre><code>2^32 bits = 2^2(bytes) x 2^10(kilobytes) x 2^10(megabytes) x 2^10(gigabytes)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So successive division of <code>2^32</code> by <code>2^10</code> results in <code>2^2 GB</code> or <code>4 GB</code>.</p>
  
  <p>Can somebody point out how the 32-bit word size go to a 4GB page range?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks</p>