[Info-vax] OpenVMS I64 V8.1 "Evaluation Release"?

[Fritz Wuehler]

Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> wrote:

> My god, I can hardly believe my eyes when I read this.
> 
> Have none of you the slightest clue about the difference between virtual 
> address and physical address?

Yeah me and Glenn at least.

> 
> Even today, there is no CPU that can address 64 bit physical address
> space. 

I don't think that's true. What about z/Arch? What about POWER?

> Is that relevant? No. You've been able to address 64 bits of virtual 
> address space in your programs the whole time, independent of the 
> physical address capabilities. And independent of the actual physical 
> ram existing on the machine.

Yes, as Glenn and I alluded to.

> > OTOH, it's not too difficult to ready a software for 64bits,

Depends on a lot of different things like what platform you are talking
about and what language the code is written in. Depends whether you are
talking about making it work or making it work well.

Big changes are required to run x86 assembler in 64 bit mode *and* make it
work better.