Was looking around on the internet and found an interesting newsgroup conversation from ten years ago, with 2 people having an argument about RAM (Random Access Memory)...
Not only does Scott shoot down Kristain's theory about computers have Gigabytes of RAM but actually makes fun of him for the idea.
Average computers nowadays have 1-2GBs of RAM. I have 4GB and people always ask me "Why the hell do you need 4GBs of RAM Ryan?" When asked this I just respond with a "Just wait." Software always pushes hardware to new levels. Always.
Remember this was written 1997. Just ten years ago computers were connecting to the internets through 56k dial up modems. 1 MP3 song would take roughly about 45 minutes to and hour to download. Kristain at one point says in 15 years he will hit the 32bit limit wich is around 3.5GB, 64bit processors were released years ago to address this issue.
In another ten years I will be flying my rocket car through the hyper-lanes on my way to work on mars.
Scott Nudds wrote:
No personal computer will ever have gigabytes of RAM, just as no automobile has giga-gallon gas tanks.
Kristian Thommesen wrote:
May I ask why not? - if the trend of my personal computers continuous, there's a doubling of memory about each 2.5 years.
Scott Nudds wrote:
Exponential growth is impossible to sustain for any appreciable
length of time as a practical matter. The fact that current growth is
exponential means that in short order we can expect it to abruptly halt.
But this is not the reason PC's will never have gigabytes of RAM.
The reason is simple. Somewhere in the 50 to 200 megabyte range, all
applications, (or at least their active portion), will reside in memory.
Doubling memory may allow the entire set of applications to reside in
memory, but the performance gain will be small. The larger the memory
capacity, the smaller the gain.
As a result, additional RAM memory will not be added.
Kristian Thommesen wrote:
Now being 64MB - it would take 4*2.5 years = 10 years before I hit the GB and in 15 years, I'll hit the 32bit address-space limit.
Scott Nudds wrote:
And how many more years before the count of bits is equivalent to the number of silicon atoms in earths crust?
Does exponential growth confuse you?
Kristian Thommesen, science student at the University of Aarhus.
How sad."