On Feb 19, 2014, at 4:29 PM, John Gilmore <[email protected]> wrote:
> and I am puzzled. Is this entropy the entropy of thermodynamics or > information theory? The quantity having the dimensions J/K, Joules > per Kelvin? > > In what sense is entropy ever 'generated'? > > Or is this perhaps a technically loose figurative, metaphorical way > of talking about the heat generated by a "full" 256-bit address word > memory, one physically containing 2^256 addressable units of 'real' > storage. If so, what storage technology was envisaged in these > calculations. Delay lines? Ferrite cores? CMOS? Hadrons in > quantum-mechanical storage? Each of these technologies would have > different power requirements. > > Moreover, while no one has yet constructed an instance of 'full' > real 64-bit storage, this "failure" has not compromised the usefulness > of AMODE(64) virtual storage. > > Is this statement indeed susceptible of any definite interpretation? > Or is it, as I suspect, essentially frivolous rhetoric? I had to go to the wayback machine to find the original article, but here it is: https://web.archive.org/web/20070216075030/http://www.sun.com/2004-0914/feature/ The relevant quote is in the last paragraph: “Logically, the next question is if ZFS' 128 bits is enough. According to Bonwick, it has to be. "Populating 128-bit file systems would exceed the quantum limits of earth-based storage. You couldn't fill a 128-bit storage pool without boiling the oceans.” So my memory that he’d mentioned entropy was faulty. But the point that 128 bits is enough stands. -- Curtis Pew ([email protected]) ITS Systems Core The University of Texas at Austin ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
