OT: Acres of bacteria

[Andrew]

On Thu, 2004-04-08 at 19:10, Norberto Quintanar wrote:
> --- "Longman, Bill" <longman@sharplabs.com> wrote:
> > > > Clint thus spoke:
> > > > name). A 
> > > > memory "card" of such a size, if made entirely of hydrogen 
> > > > atoms, would 
> > > > weigh about 567 million metric tons (again, if I have done 
> > > > the math right).
> > > 
> > > How much would it weigh if it were made of holes?
> > > 
> > > One thing that's a limit to memory is the address bus width. 
> > > That's the
> > > bottleneck between the CPU and the memory. With a 32 bit 
> > > address bus width,
> > > the addressable memory limit is 4GB. Most newer CPUs have a 
> > > 36 bit address
> > > bus giving them direct access to 64GB of RAM (G4s and most 
> > > i686s). The G5
> > > has a 42 bit address bus. We leave the calculation to Clint, 
> > > who'll probably
> > > compare the sheer size of this number to acres of bacteria....
> > 
> > Enter units, my *favorite* utility:
> > 
> > Assuming 1 bacteria = ~1 micron^2 then,
> > 
> > /home/longman
> > 2k01> units
> > 1989 units, 71 prefixes, 32 nonlinear units
> > 
> > You have: 2^42 micron^2
> > You want: acre
> >         * 0.0010867766
> >         / 920.1523
> > You have: 2^42 micron^2
> > You want: yard^2
> >         * 5.2600199
> >         / 0.19011335
> > You have: 2^64 micron^2
> > You want: mile^2
> >         * 7.1223277
> >         / 0.14040354
> > 
> > So just imagine....if memory technology were based on (small) E.
> > coli, and
> > you had them all laid out on the floor, one next to the other,
> > you'd need a
> > roomful of them for your G5's addressable memory. But you'd need
> > several
> > square miles of them for its total memory space....
> > 
> > Clint, here's what I just got, assuming H is 1 amu:
> > You have: 2^128 amu
> > You want: tons
> >         * 6.2286327e+08
> >         / 1.6054888e-09
> 
> Regardless, all that bacteria would smell.  On the flip side, if you
> bought a "roomfull" of bacteria, assuming optimal growing conditions,
> in no time you'd have two rooms of bacteria, then a little later
> you'd have three rooms.  They would keep growing until they ran out
> of food :(  The ultimate upgrade
> 
how insightful....
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