cliffc@libya.rice.edu (Cliff Click) (08/09/90)
I think the large file folks don't need more address bits, they need a better addressing scheme. The use of infinite-precision integers in the applications will let them write code that can handle any size file. Then it's the OS folks' job to understand seek(1 Trillion), and translate that to a disk sector, or read/write/load that between memory and disk. If you want to say "malloc(1 Trillion)" that's a slightly different problem; here your requesting more virtual memory than you have. This is a language implementors' problem: you *can* deal with a name address space larger than you physical virtual-address-space (more than 32 bits), it's just slower and requires more smarts. Object oriented folks have a leg up here, and IBM PC folks have had to fight this fight some time ago. Cliff Click -- Cliff Click cliffc@owlnet.rice.edu