The Prospects for 128 Bit Processors ( John Mashey SGI 1995)
This archival post from 1995 by John Mashey explores the technical necessity and future prospects of 128-bit processors. It provides a historical perspective on how physical memory addressing requirements evolve alongside DRAM capacity growth.
Why it matters
It serves as a historical case study in technological forecasting and the long-term evolution of computer architecture.
The prospects for 128 bit processors(John R. Mashey)
From: mash@mash.engr.sgi.com (John R. Mashey) Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.lang.c Subject: Re: 64-bit chips, 32-bit compatibility? Date: 28 Sep 1995 02:36:19 GMT Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.
In article <44boso$ies@dg-rtp.dg.com>, kahn@romulus.rtp.dg.com (Opher Kahn) writes:
|> >architecture for the next 30 years, i'd make it clear that it's really 64-bit, |>
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ |> Well, I would be careful about such statements. It was MUCH LESS than 30 |> years ago that people thought that 16 bits was a lot and 32 bits was more than |> we would need this century.
Let's try a more detailed analysis, I've posted something like this before, but forgot to save it, so let me try again: PHYSICAL ADDRESSING 1) For many years DRAM gets 4X larger every 3 years, or 2 bits/3 years.
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