🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <753@dgis.dtic.dla.mil> jkrueger@dgis.dtic.dla.mil (Jon) writes:
>Are 64 bit spaces being held back by hardware: complexity, fabrication,
>critical paths?  Or software (what we used to call systems software):
>virtual memory operating systems that can give processes 64 bit virtual
>spaces at acceptable cost?...

Neither, really.  They're being held back by limited customer demand.
Cranking up all the pointers to 64 bits -- and probably all the integers
too, given the sloppy assumptions in a lot of code -- will cost quite a
bit in space even if the time cost is nil.  Also, given certain other
sloppy assumptions, porting to such a machine will be a lot of work.
There are relatively few applications that would find this cost-effective
right now; *most* programs find 32 bits ample.
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