Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

> What does it mean to "address memory in powers of two" ? There are certainly machines with non-power-of-two memory quantities; 96 GiB is common for example.

I challenge you to show me any SKU from any memory manufacturer that has a power of 10 capacity. Or a CPU whose address space is a power of 10. This is an unavoidable artefact of using a binary address bus.

> The metric prefixes based on powers of 10 have been around since the 1790s.

And Babylonians used power of 60, what gives?



Consider applying for YC's Fall 2025 batch! Applications are open till Aug 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: