Oh I see what you are saying but that's not really just a pointer or a userspace thing, that 48 bit limit is simply imposed by the x86-64 CPU vendors in no?
With 48 bits you can still address 256TB of memory. I guessing that from a practical and financial point of view it probably made little sense for vendors to build a CPU that enabled addressing the full 64 bits. At least for now.
With 48 bits you can still address 256TB of memory. I guessing that from a practical and financial point of view it probably made little sense for vendors to build a CPU that enabled addressing the full 64 bits. At least for now.