4 ms·
The article mentions this (but it is easily missed): while current chips are 64 bits, in practice the memory addressing is only 48 bits, with plans to extend it
by tomerv 5y ago
The article mentions this (but it is easily missed): while current chips are 64 bits, in practice the memory addressing is only 48 bits, with plans to extend it to 57 bits for server products [1]. Taking this into account, there's a clear slowdown in the growth of the number of bits: 7 years from 16 to 32, then 18 years for anther 16 bits (32 to 48), and now ~18 more years for just 9 more bits. Seems like exponential slowdown, which makes sense given that the size of memory is an exponent of the number of bits.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_5-level_paging https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_5-level_paging
- penteract 5y agoYou're counting the years per bit incorrectly, the comment you reply to gets it right - the new generation is needed when the current space runs out, not when the next limit is needed in its entirety. So the ~18 years you mention are the time from needing 33 bit addresses to needing 49 bit addresses. (And 7 years is the time from needing the 9th bit of address space to needing the 17th).