&gt; For example, I could imagine a machine with identical memory layout to C, but that supported a hugely parallel, variable-size data bus where an operation like &quot;x = y&quot; (string assignment by value) could copy an entire string in a single operation.<p>You mean like x86 (at least as far as the ISA is concerned) [1]? :)<p>I mean, this isn&#x27;t just me being pedantic and annoying: I think it goes to show that C&#x27;s machine is quite different from a real machine.<p>[1]: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;x86.renejeschke.de&#x2F;html&#x2F;file_module_x86_id_279.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;x86.renejeschke.de&#x2F;html&#x2F;file_module_x86_id_279.html</a>