[rescue] 128 bits...

[Dave McGuire]

On Thursday, February 6, 2003, at 10:41 PM, Scott Newell wrote:
>> Seriously, what would you do with 128 bits? That is a huge chunk of
>> data to deal with natively - I think eventually you will find that the
>> waste in doing normal work will preclude wide-spread adoption...
>
> 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.

   Eh...I believe routing table lookups and address masking are better 
off done in specialized hardware.  Perhaps an "IP coprocessor".

         -Dave

--
Dave McGuire             "I've grown hair again, just
St. Petersburg, FL           for the occasion."       -Doc Shipley