Now, given that there are ~4.3B ip addresses, given memory consumption of lets say 512 bytes per ip, you're talking about 2.1Tb of memory if you were to do allow every 32 bit ip to be routed seperateley.
2.1 terabytes...wow. but think about it this way: if you did manage to build such a beast, a route cache would not be needed, as route lookups would all be O(1). :) actually...if you *did* manage such a thing, you could get the memory usage down a lot, since you'd just need to store next hop for each ip address, and not so much stuff about linked lists and stuff. -- |-----< "CODE WARRIOR" >-----| codewarrior@daemon.org * "ah! i see you have the internet twofsonet@graffiti.com (Andrew Brown) that goes *ping*!" andrew@crossbar.com * "information is power -- share the wealth."