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From: jbuck@epimass.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Time for 64-bit longs?
Message-ID: <848@epimass.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 28-Jan-87 15:03:37 EST
Article-I.D.: epimass.848
Posted: Wed Jan 28 15:03:37 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 30-Jan-87 00:36:59 EST
Organization: Entropic Processing, Inc., Cupertino, CA
Lines: 16
Xref: watmath comp.lang.c:874 comp.unix.wizards:728

DEC announced the SA482 disk subsystem, which stores 2.5 gigabytes
of data.  System Industries plans a drive that stores 4 G.  But
the maximum value a 32-bit signed value can store is about 2.1E9.
Without a data type longer than 32 bits, you can't deal with files
or partitions bigger than this.

Has anyone bit the bullet and gone to 64-bit longs?  I know Convex
has a monstrosity called a "long long" that's 64 bits; they leave
long as 32 bits, the same as int, apparently because it was too hard
to change all the Berkeley code that assumes long == int.  But it
seems the Vax architecture will soon require a 64-bit type at the
high end.

-- 
- Joe Buck 	{hplabs,ihnp4,sun,ames}!oliveb!epimass!jbuck	HASA (A,S)
  Entropic Processing, Inc., Cupertino, California