Data storage with infinite capacity

Question

I want to store infinity number of java BigIntegers in a storage from where I can fetch those data, do some operation, insert new data. The operation needs to be very fast. What will be the best choice of storage for this purpose?

The application will start with a prime number 2 and will check the primality of the numbers by some algorithm. If it founds a prime then it will insert that into that storage. Using the stored primes it will find next one. This application will never stops. If one stops the application then whenever next time it launches it will start from there where it was stopped. In this sense it is infinitesimal.

I think MySql, Oracle etc can't handle this kind of system. So is there any other data storage which can be used for this purposes?

An infinite hard disk and infinite RAM would be my recommendation. You'll want to order the infinitely fast SSD, because you don't want delays in accessing any of that infinite set of BigIntegers that you have in mind. — duffymo, Dec 21 '11 at 11:00
An extensible filesystem? Should be the most cost effective solution. — Thomas, Dec 21 '11 at 11:00
Btw, you know that even the universe can't hold _infinite_ data, don't you? :) — Thomas, Dec 21 '11 at 11:01
infinite size * infinite speed = infinite cost. What is your budget realistically? — Peter Lawrey, Dec 21 '11 at 11:03
Of course, an infinity storage would require an address bus of infinite size, which means you'll never be able to read/write to it... :-) — Jaco Van Niekerk, Dec 21 '11 at 11:06
Hello. I have edited my question so that it will be clearer to you. — Tapas Bose, Dec 21 '11 at 11:40

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 21 '11 at 11:07

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I guess you realize that there is no such thing as "infinity" in practice.

You can have on-demand, expandable storage in many ways, including Amazon S3.

If you really need to operate trillions of numbers, you have a research task at hand. A SO question won't work in that case.

answered Dec 21 '11 at 11:07

Bozho

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Thanks. It is not for research. I have edited my question with more information. – Tapas Bose Dec 21 '11 at 11:42

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:48

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You will never be able to store an "infinite" amount of numbers, since storage is bound by some physical quantity (whatever it may be).

See this question that might be much more realistic: Efficient storage of prime numbers.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:48

Community

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answered Dec 21 '11 at 11:47

lsoliveira

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Data storage with infinite capacity

2 Answers2