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From: adamd@rhi.hi.is (Adam David)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Be Prepared...
Keywords: Lots Of Memory
Message-ID: <2779@krafla.rhi.hi.is>
Date: 15 Feb 91 00:15:07 GMT
References: <1991Feb13.160718.25759@visix.com>
Organization: University of Iceland
Lines: 37

In <1991Feb13.160718.25759@visix.com> jeff@nsx (Jeff Barr) writes:

>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...

I tend to think it will level off at 128 or 256 bit addressing, and sooner
than we would predict by comparing with today's technology. Our grandchildren
will tell us that it needed to be bigger after all.

>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.

real-time 3D display memory takes a fair bit of space, if that were to be 
memory-mapped the address space would also have to be large.

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

Well for starters,
it might be enough space for a pretty convincing virtual world by today's
standards.
When AI really gets off the ground large spaces may well be necessary to
this, and whatever the AI comes up with on its own.
The technology has not become manifest yet for any of this, but how much
of what we have today was predicted by industry scientists? It was the 
Science fiction writer / visionary type who got it right more often (when
he wasn't totally wrong that is).
The seeds of the necessary technological breakthroughs are certainly
available today, it's only a matter of synthesising accumulated knowledge
and experience.

A few thoughts...
--
Adam David.  adamd@rhi.hi.is