From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Message-ID: <eb106194e137b716532e512c37164201@quanstro.net>
From: erik quanstrom <quanstro@quanstro.net>
Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2007 05:05:54 -0500
To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
Subject: Re: [9fans] Current status of amd64 port?
In-Reply-To: <473D4D67.90305@gmail.com>
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> > 64 bits is neither here nor there in a vaccuum.  you want 64 bits if
> > a) you need more than 4GB of memory, or
> > a) those extra registers and direct vlong really matter for performance.
> > otherwise it's just a lot of extra zeros.
> 
> Let's not commit a false alternatives fallacy here....  For example, the
> very large virtual address space of 64bit is useful, even without 4 GB
> of RAM.  It allows all sorts of madnesses, such as memory mapping
> petabyte sized devices, or other programmatic conveniences such as large
> sparse vectors.

there is no fallacy here.  remember Plan 9 is Not Multics.
plan 9 doesn't memory map drives.  in fact, there is no mmap function
at all.  plan 9 doesn't use dsm either.

i'm not sure what you mean by "programming conveniences such as
large, sparse vectors".

- erik