[Coco] Thoughts on modern computers (sort of off topic)

[Steven Hirsch]

On Wed, 1 Feb 2012, Mark McDougall wrote:

> On 1/02/2012 10:28 AM, Steven Hirsch wrote:
>
>> They'll have a rude awakening ahead of them if they venture into my
>> field (VLSI design verification). What the compiler does with your code
>> "doesn't matter" - until you have 200GB of data in memory and 2 billion
>> shapes to traverse. Then, trust me on this, you need detailed
>> understanding of what's happening where the binary hits the silicon in
>> order to get reasonable runtimes.
>
> I still pause for reconsideration every time I need to allocate a block of 
> memory for a single data structure that is larger than the entire Coco 
> address space! ;)
>
> I wonder if - someday down the track - people will scoff at your piddly 
> little 200GB of data and a mere 2 billion shapes!?! :) Likewise, I wonder if 
> I'll ever be allocating a single 200GB block, and think nothing of it! :O
>
> PS. You sound like you have an interesting job!

Yes, if a bit hectic.  But, I do get access to some majorly Kewl hardware. 
Nothing like having a 32-way 1/2-Terabyte Linux box to yourself for smoke 
testing :-).

Steve


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