Path: utzoo!attcan!telly!lethe!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!visix!nsx!jeff
From: jeff@nsx (Jeff Barr)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Be Prepared...
Keywords: Lots Of Memory
Message-ID: <1991Feb13.160718.25759@visix.com>
Date: 13 Feb 91 16:07:18 GMT
Sender: news@visix.com
Reply-To: jeff@nsx (Jeff Barr)
Organization: Visix Software Inc., Reston, VA
Lines: 22

Voracious_users_of_memory and assumers_that_sizeof(char *)==sizeof(int):

Note that people who are building new processor chips (e.g.
the MIPS R4000) say that by 1993 typical high-end micro-based systems
are going to have more than 4 gigabytes of address space, and in many
cases this much real memory.  The next jump is to 64 bits, which should
last quite a while (I think 64 bits will address each molecule in
your body individually).  This is 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 bytes.
There may not be another address space upgrade in the future of the
world.  This is history in the making.  You can tell your grandchildren 
about this...

The address space is growing because (apparently) mapping files 
into the address space is now a common practice, to avoid all of that
icky file I/O.

As always, this means that the size of pointers is in no way related
to the size of any other data type, and our code must not assume this.

Any good ideas on what to do with this much space?

							Jeff