Re: power line (AS/400) article in computerworld

Hi James,

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googolplex

"One googol <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googol> is greater than the number of elementary particles <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_particle> in the observable universe <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observable_universe>, which has been variously estimated from 10^79 up to 10^81 . A googol is also greater than the number of Planck times <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck_time> elapsed since the Big Bang <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang> which is estimated at around 8*10^60 . Therefore a list of the state of every particle at every measurable unit of time since the Big Bang would have nowhere near a googolplex entries (max. around 8*10^141 )."

Sorry, they didn't say what they meant by "particle". Either way, I don't think I'll be writing a program that needs to handle a linked list or array that would require 64-byte pointers.

*Peter Dow* /
Dow Software Services, Inc.
909 793-9050
pdow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:pdow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> /

James HH. Lampert wrote:

And why would you need pointers that large anyway? 2^512 = 1.3e+154
according to MS Calculator or about 1.5 googols, so you could "list of
the state of every particle at every measurable unit of time since the
Big Bang" (wikipedia) and still have 1 x 10**14 or so addresses leftover.

Is that at molecular resolution, or quantum resolution?
------------------------------------------------------------------------

No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.519 / Virus Database: 269.22.12/1373 - Release Date: 4/11/2008 9:17 AM