Didn't mean to imply that was a good idea, just that it's possible. It looks like the top supercomputers are getting close to surpassing 64 petabytes (56 bits b

Didn't mean to imply that was a good idea, just that it's possible. It looks like the top supercomputers are getting close to surpassing 64 petabytes (56 bits byte-addressed) of virtual memory space, so 16-bit tags are right out. A 48-bit byte-addressed memory space is 256 terabytes, which is getting snug for high-end servers but still 15±5 years out for consumer hardware. 48-bit byte-addressed: 256 terabytes 48-bit word-addressed: 2 petabytes 56-bit byte-addressed: 64 petabytes 56-bit word-addressed: 512 petabytes