It's not that they expect machines with terabytes of memory. The  
expanded address space gives them flexibility in the memory mapping  
and virtual memory. For instance, in my last position I wrote a kernel  
module to capture the contents of memory at a given point in time. In  
the 32-bit days I had to play all kinds of tricks to address physical  
memory above 1 GB because the kernel's address space directly mapped  
to physical memory and if the machine had more it wasn't straight  
forward. With a 64-bit kernel there is a specific memory mapping that  
directly mapped to all of physical memory making things much easier on  
me and my kernel module. Read up on how virtual memory works to  
understand the reasoning behind this.

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 27, 2009, at 7:42 PM, Ryan Rix <phrkonaleash@gmail.com> wrote:

> Jim March wrote:
>> Osama Yo Mama uses terrorbytes!
>>
>> Ah!
>
> Oh, uhm... I agree...?
>
> To put things back on firm earth and on-topicness... Why on earth  
> would
> Linus even waste his time on trying to get this much memory  
> addressed in the
> kernel? What is the rational behind it, besides being a publicity  
> stunt?
>
> -- 
> Ryan Rix
> (623)-826-0051
>
> Fortune:
> Fun Facts, #14:
>    In table tennis, whoever gets 21 points first wins.  That's how
>    it once was in baseball -- whoever got 21 runs first won.
>
> http://hackersramblings.wordpress.com | http://twitter.com/ 
> phrkonaleash
> XMPP: phrkonaleash@gmail.com          | MSN: phrkonaleash@yahoo.com
> AIM:  phrkonaleash                    | Yahoo: phrkonaleash
> IRC:  PhrkOnLsh@irc.freenode.net/#srcedit,#teensonlinux,#plugaz and
>      countless other FOSS channels.
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------
> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
> http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
---------------------------------------------------
PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss