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Apple’s market cap is $983B and IBM’s is $125B. So somehow they’ve survived this lowbrow hack.

Seriously, with 64 bit addresses available on the iPhone I’m typing this into, this is an excellent trick, especially for applications. Even ARM’s TBI leaves 56 bits which is more address space than a data center’s DRAM.

  log2(16 billion * 100,000) is about 50 
You have a point at 32. You’re just wrong at 64.



Right, because the quality of every lesson one learns about programming practice should be evaluated by the market cap of the firm where it was learned.


The parent post mentioned those companies and the corporate 'cost' of recovering from this mistake. Take it up with him.


"You see, these guys hit this boulder , and they still ride their 60-ton battle tank! Why should I not try the same with my car?"

See also: survivor bias.


That’s nice rhetoric but I didn’t pick the survivor examples.


You did, by mentioning the companies that are alive and kicking.

OTOH DEC placed a bet on new and cool Alpha architecture, and died switching (bought by HP).


Those examples and companies, IBM (the IBM 360) and Apple (the Macintosh), were picked by the parent post.

DEC was acquired by Compaq not HP. Compaq was later acquired by HP but before that happened Compaq sold the Alpha line to Intel because it would have competed with the Itanium. The Alpha was then licensed by Intel to the Chinese (according to Gustafson) and was used as the basis for the Sunway Taihu Light.

Can I help you with anything else?




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