respectful slightly dumb question about 64 bit computing.....
Dear Debian folks,
I have been reading about the benefits of 64 bit computing on the web. In
the old days I used to run some molecular dynamics calculations on a DEC
Alpha with a 64 bit chip in it and the developer there did get a definite
boost from it.
I have been reading the discussion on wikipedia about 64 bit computing.
There is a little section in there that interested me and I wondered if I
could ask a question about it.
Here is the section:
"The emergence of the 64-bit architecture effectively increases the memory
ceiling to 264 addresses, equivalent to 17,179,869,184 gigabytes or 16
exabytes of RAM. To put this in perspective, in the days when a mere 4 kB of
main memory was commonplace, the maximum memory ceiling of 232 addresses was
about 1 million times larger than typical memory configurations. Taking
today's standard as 4 GB of main memory (actually, few personal computers
have this much), then the difference between today's standard and the 264
limit is a factor of about 4 billion. Most 64-bit consumer PCs on the market
today have an artificial limit on the amount of memory they can recognize,
because physical constraints make it highly unlikely that one will need
support for the full 16 exabyte capacity. Apple's Mac Pro, for example, can
be physically configured with up to 16 gigabytes of memory, and as such
there is no need for support beyond that amount. A recent Linux kernel
(version 2.6.16) can be compiled with support for up to 64 gigabytes of
memory."
OK, here's the dumb question:
Let's suppose that money was no object and we managed in some technical feat
to construct a computer that could have a 64 bit chip in it that would be
properly hooked up to 16 exabytes of RAM.
If I had such a computer in my possession and I offered to donate to the
Debian community how would it respond?
Would it say
1. What a waste of money you idiot. Why are you even posting this
question? It just shows how stupid you are. This computer would have memory
capacity that no one could use for any purpose we can think of so you should
have donated the money building it to charity or to the Debian community for
work on developing its OS for conventional computing resources instead.
Don't post anything else on this site for at least another six months or
until you have had a brain scan.
OR
2. We would be delighted to receive the donated computer. We think that we
could configure our Debian OS to run on it and yes, there would be serious
computing problems it could address.
What sorts of problems would they be? I suppose it could one that would
require e.g. a huge database.
The other question I have is: how much performance increase in database
applications is typicall seen using 64 bit computing?
Regards,
Michael Fothergill
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