Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!usc!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!aries!mcdonald From: mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: 64-bit addresses Message-ID: <1990Feb13.171550.24180@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> Date: 13 Feb 90 17:15:50 GMT References: <9708@spool.cs.wisc.edu> <20270@cfctech.cfc.com> <11112@encore.Encore.COM> <753@dgis.dtic.dla.mil> <3606@uceng.UC.EDU> <757@dgis.dtic.dla.mil> Sender: news@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News) Reply-To: mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) Organization: School of Chemical Sciences, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Lines: 25 In article <757@dgis.dtic.dla.mil> jkrueger@dgis.dtic.dla.mil (Jon) writes: > >Sounds pretty scary. Now, you'd never guess it from what appears >in comp.arch, but the chief use of cycles is pushing around 8 bit >unsigned quanitities that by convention stand for printable symbols >representing a curious code called the "alphabet". So my challenge >to you (or anyone) is to tell me what your word processing would do >with 32+ addressing bits? Ground rules: no Emacs jokes, can only >include the space costs of support tools when clearly part of the >word processing, and no credit for mere time advantages. Well? > You have left yourself wide open to an embarrassing attack on your ability to come up with useful prognostications of the future. You are in good company, along with e.g. IBM, who poo-pooed the Xerox machine, and those who claimed that the world would never need more than 10 computers. The answer to your question is simple: my word processor with 32+ address bits would take my spoken dictation in English and send it to the printer (or direct over the network, or whatever - my crystal ball is hazy here) with all the spelling errors fixed, in English, German, and Japanese. Doug McDonald