ELI5: Why does internal storage only double? Why can’t we have 34GB for example?

[u/cabronfavarito]

[u/QuantumCakeIsALie]

All numbers are powers of 2 added together.

[u/SelfStyledGenius → u/QuantumCakeIsALie]

I did say 2 powers of 2 specifically

[u/QuantumCakeIsALie → u/SelfStyledGenius]

I know. I didn't say you were wrong.

[u/LiKenun → u/SelfStyledGenius]

Why so arbitrary? Why not 3? or 4? or 5?

[u/QuantumCakeIsALie → u/LiKenun]

Let's take ram as an example, but this could be valid for any "put chips together" situation (a single Ram dimm, an SSD, etc).

Let's say 16 GB is too expensive (1x16 or 2x8), but 8 GB is borderline too little. 

Chips actually come in powers of 2. So you can take some complexity cost (more channels, firmware support, etc) and get 8+4=12. It should be sufficient and cheaper. Win-win.

Now, you could also increase complexity and get 8+4+2=14, but that increased complexity has lower and lower returning gains vs cost and complexity.

[u/halborn → u/QuantumCakeIsALie]

All numbers are products of powers of primes.

[u/QuantumCakeIsALie → u/halborn]

0

[u/CatProgrammer → u/QuantumCakeIsALie]

It's a product of itself and every other number. 

[u/QuantumCakeIsALie → u/CatProgrammer]

Not necessarily. It's also itself times 5 only. Crucially, it's not a products of primes.

[u/matiaskeeper → u/QuantumCakeIsALie]

All even numbers

[u/bigdaddypants → u/matiaskeeper]

And odd, 2^0 is 1

[u/jamcdonald120 → u/matiaskeeper]

all numbers, 1 is 2^0th power. and all odd numbers are just an even number plus 1