[rescue] 128 bits...

[Lionel Peterson]

--- Scott Newell <newell at cei.net> wrote:
> How 'bout another special case: networking processor designed for
> IPv6?
> IPv6 addresses are 128bits, right?  Seems like there'd be some
> advantage in being able to ram those through an ALU in one fell
> swoop.  Granted, you can do this now if you want, and it wouldn't
> require widening the entire CPU to 128 bits.

Well, since I don't open up NICs and switches, I wouldn't "see" this
type of application...

> >I suspect (but have no direct knowledge - Dave M. help me), I
> >think 64 bits are a waste for most end-user applications. OTOH,
> >I am sure it is great for certain applications.
> 
> At current memory density/price rates, how long before it would be
> affordable (say, $100k) to fully populate a 64 bit address space?

And you would load and store that data on what? At what I/O speed?

> My gut feel (and maybe I'm wrong here, not having done any research
> on it) is that a wider arch starts to get a lot more attractive as
> soon as you can reasonably fill the address space of the previous,
> narrow, arch.

I think that may make sense up to a point, but 64 bit address space is
a bit huge... I am fascinated by the idea of a CPU that addresses
directly into secondary storage, data files exists as address
locations, not inodes or sectors/tracks/platters on a SCSI ID...

=====
Lionel

"Nothing would please me more than being able to hire ten
programmers and deluge the hobby market with good software"
Bill Gates, in "An OpenLetter to Hobbyists" dated February 3, 1976
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