title: Word Addressable Memory
body: <p>For a 32 bit word addressable memory, the word has size of 4 bytes. </p>
  <p>If I try to store a data structure uses less than 4 byte memory, say 2 bytes. Is the remaining 2 bytes wasted?</p>
  <p>Should we consider the word size when we decide what data structure to use? </p>
  <p>Got similar question <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1622077/why-use-integers-smaller-than-32bit">here</a> but not exactly what i am asking. </p>
  <p>Please help.</p>