Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!linus!linus!gauss!bs From: bs@gauss.mitre.org (Robert D. Silverman) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Be Prepared... Message-ID: <1991Feb15.135523.11544@linus.mitre.org> Date: 15 Feb 91 13:55:23 GMT References: <1991Feb13.160718.25759@visix.com> Sender: news@linus.mitre.org (News Service) Organization: The MITRE Corporation, Bedford, MA 01730 Lines: 29 Nntp-Posting-Host: gauss.mitre.org In article burley@geech.ai.mit.edu (Craig Burley) writes: :In article wolfe@vw.ece.cmu.edu (Andrew Wolfe) writes: : : I have been told that it is estimated that 64-bits will address all of the : subatomic particles in our universe. : This claim is grossly false. In fact, it isn't even close. 2^64 ~ 1.84 x 10^19 1 mole ~ 6.02 x 10^23 Thus, there is 4 orders of magnitude difference between 64 bit addressing and just 1 mole of matter. It has been estimated that there are "around" 10^79 atoms in the universe (from estimates of mass). This is off by 60 orders of magnitude from the supposed 64 bit address space. Even if 10^79 is off by 3 or 4 orders of magnitude, it still makes the above claim ridiculous. Ye gads! Doesn't anyone learn basic physics anymore? Can't anyone do arithmetic? -- Bob Silverman #include Mitre Corporation, Bedford, MA 01730 "You can lead a horse's ass to knowledge, but you can't make him think"