And there's another disadvantage to 128-bit pointers - memory size and alignment. It would follow that each struct field would become 16 byte-aligned, and point

And there's another disadvantage to 128-bit pointers - memory size and alignment. It would follow that each struct field would become 16 byte-aligned, and pointers would bloat up as well, leading to even more memory consumption, especially in languages that favor pointer-heavy structures. This was a major counterargument against 64-bit x86, where the transition came out as a net zero in terms of performance, due to the hit of larger pointer sizes counterbalanced by ISA improvements such as more addressable registers. Many people in high-performance circles advocate using 32-bit array indices opposed to pointers, to counteract the cache pollution effects.