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by wolfgke 3392 days ago
> No. With 8 bit you had to execute multiple instructions to add two numbers. Same with 16 bit.

Wrong (for x86-16 vs. x86-32). Just use an operand-size size override prefix (0x66) with your 16 bit real mode ALU (in this case 'add') instruction to make it a 32 bit ALU instruction. Works from 80386 on, where the 32 bit registers were introduced.