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by SamuelAdams 1641 days ago
> Amusingly, while implementing support for this in Linux, we ran into a bug in Linux’s ARM SMMU support that had been there ever since 52-bit address support was introduced. This was breaking systems with more than 256 TiB of RAM - I wonder why nobody noticed? Either way, Linux now correctly supports standard ARM systems with up to 4 PiB of RAM ;-).

Interesting how working on new technologies helps improve existing things for all users. Sort of reminds me how NASA invests in R&D and those investments eventually come back to military and consumers.
2 comments
fragmede 1641 days ago
Especially handy for SpaceX, which employs a number of ex-NASA folk. SpaceX wouldn't be where they are today if it weren't for the investment in NASA.
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Leherenn 1641 days ago
> This was breaking systems with more than 256 TiB of RAM - I wonder why nobody noticed?

Are there even ARM systems with that amount of RAM? I assume it's something in the order of what super computers use, but I don't think any of them are ARM. That doesn't sound that surprising to me that no one noticed if no one uses that much RAM.

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pthariensflame 1641 days ago
There’s at least one Armv8 supercomputer out there today, and it’s a beast too: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugaku_(supercomputer)
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