Re: Can't Avoid That Shit Rust - Even On Gentoo

"186282@ud0s4.net" <186283@ud0s4.net> writes:

  It's a really BIG number ...
>
  But there SHOULD be a few 256/512-bit types in ye
  olde library  :-)
>
  Now CPUs ... maybe 128-bit IS what future-lookers
  need to immediately switch to. Haven't heard many
  complaints about 64-bit chips, yet, but doesn't
  hurt to plan ahead. Circuitry can be made SO small
  now that the extra stuff for 128 all through may
  not be such a burden.

On x86:

* In one sense it is already up to 512 bits (if you have AVX512
  extensions), although that’s slightly misleading, since 512-bit
  registers are generally interpreted as vectors of smaller components
  (mostly, up to 64 bits)

* There are a handful up instructions that deal in 128-bit quantities
  (e.g. AES-NI extension, multipliers and dividers).

There’s relatively little need to deal with 128-bit quantities as such;
64-bits really is enough for most jobs. For most current CPUs virtual
memory addressing is still only 48-bit.

There are certainly niches that need larger quantities; classical
asymmetric cryptography can use integers hundreds or thousands of bits
long. While cryptography implementors might find 4096-bit integer
registers convenient it’d be an incredibly expensive waste for almost
everyon else.

OR ... are 'CPUs' even bulk of The Future ?  Somehow I see "AI" -
implemented on large distributed systems of diverse composition,
likely even some 'quantum' thrown in - being the coming thing. They
can emulate old CPUs.

AIs can’t even do basic arithmetic, CPU emulation is certainly not a
realistic proposition.

--
https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/