[Boost-users] [integer] what is the fastest integer type which can hold an 8 bit number?

Reading the documentation at http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_59_0/libs/integer/doc/html/boost_integer/int... I invoke the following using temp_integer = typename boost::int_t<8>::fast; With the idea of getting the fastest integer type which will hold an 8 bit signed number. But I get temp_integer equal to a char type. This surprises me. I don't believe that the fastest integer type which can hold an 8 bit signed integer is a char. I looked into the boost/integer.hpp and I can't really figure it out. It doesn't seem to to have any processor specific code in it - which I would think would be necessary to implement the function. What am I missing here? Robert Ramey