32 bit hardware

[KGIII]

Oddly, I just bumped into something earlier today. The kernel is just now dropping Itanium (IA64 - an early version of 64 bit that didn't really catch on as Intel had hoped) support.

Given how scarce that hardware is, it's quite possible that the kernel will support 32 bit for quite some time to come.

 

[osprey]

Oddly, I just bumped into something earlier today. The kernel is just now dropping Itanium (IA64 - an early version of 64 bit that didn't really catch on as Intel had hoped) support.

Given how scarce that hardware is, it's quite possible that the kernel will support 32 bit for quite some time to come.

Looks like the latest is 2038: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem

 

[charlie.corder]

Just as with all the other things that have come along, 32 bit is probably not going to disappear.
There are still cassette tapes out there if you want them.
I have a couple of shelves full of new CDs and DVDs sitting on them. I probably will never use them again. Memory sticks are that much better and faster, and can hold a whole lot more data whether written stuff or movies or whatever.
A couple of years ago vinyl records made a comeback, mainly because the quality was better than digital music.
When people have used memory sticks to save stuff on, I doubt that they will ever go back to CDs and DVDs. The price per gb in the mem sticks is much cheaper now than CDs and DVDs.
However, something will come along in the future that will no doubt replace those mem sticks.
Just some more rambling of an old philosopher coming out again.
OG TC

 

[KGIII]

Looks like the latest is 2038: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem

Yeah, 32 bit had some real-world limitations that meant we needed 64 bits. Those limits are much, much higher with 64 bit, so there's some debate as to how long it'll be before we need 128 bit systems for average home users. We no longer have 4 GB file or RAM size limitations and can address storage in the exabyte range (as memory serves).

In fact, the 64 bit systems can address 16 billion gigabytes of RAM. So, I would be surprised to see 128 bit systems for home use in my lifetime.

But, imagine how many tabs I could have open with that much RAM!!!

I could open all of 'em. All the tabs! A quick search says that there are like 11 million registered domain names. I could open all of them!

 

[BigBadBeef]

Yeah, 32 bit had some real-world limitations that meant we needed 64 bits. Those limits are much, much higher with 64 bit, so there's some debate as to how long it'll be before we need 128 bit systems for average home users. We no longer have 4 GB file or RAM size limitations and can address storage in the exabyte range (as memory serves).

We are getting REALLY close to the absolute material limitations of silicone, where quantum tunneling will prevent us from shrinking it down even further. When that happens, expanding the bandwidth is the last remaining option for getting even a semblance of additional performance out of our electronics, as we'll have left to do is to add more cores to CPU's, which will need it to be able communicate and delegate tasks effectively.