13 Jan
1999
13 Jan
'99
3:59 p.m.
<If we allowed a 32-bit logical sector pointer, then
2^32*2^8 bytes could
<be stored. That is 2^40 bytes total. Since 2^20 bytes is 1 Meg, a 32-bit
<logical sector pointer allows 1 megamegabyte. 2^30 bytes is 1 Gig, and
<2^10 is 1024. Therefore, 2^40 bytes is 1024 Gig.
<
<I think a 32-bit pointer would be sufficient for a while. Most drives
<available are under 20 Gig.
This is the sort of dangerous assumption that can lead to "bad things"
later (cf Y2K).
I've a photo outside my office of my computer room 10 years ago. A quick
glance shows that we had about 25Gb of storage (total) across five
machines. Now we have about 50 systems in the same room and about 2Tb of
disk. Disk pricing is falling rapidly and I have a friend who works in
another company who took delivery of 0.5Tb of disk which fits very easily
into a standard 19" rack (5.25" 47Gb drives don't occupy lots of space in
making 0.5Tb of disk....).
It wouldn't surprise me at all if we doubled our disk space in the computer
room in the next 12 months (SAP will do that to you :-)
At this stage, thinking of having 1Tb at home may seem silly, but when I
purchased my Osborne I new all those years ago, having 50Gb of disk at home
(which is about what I have spread over a fair number of systems) seemed
even less likely.
Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies(a)latrobe.edu.au
Information Technology Services | Phone: +61 3 9479 1550 Fax: +61 3 9479 1999
La Trobe University | "If God had wanted soccer played in the
Melbourne Australia 3083 | air, the sky would be painted green"