djo7613@blake.acs.washington.edu (Dick O'Connor) (03/03/89)
Thanks to all who responded to my question about the fabled "2MB" SIMMs and current 1MB SIMM prices. I've summarized responses below. The bottom line is, 2MB SIMMs don't exist (but 1MB SIMMs have to be installed in pairs) and 1MB x 9 100 ns SIMMs can be had for under $200 now! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- From yjk@june.cs.washington.edu Tue Feb 28 08:46:41 1989 Incidently, I was in the market for 1 M SIMMs a month ago, and I called several places. The lowest quote for 1 M SIMM (100ns) was 270$ from Esskay (??). I paid $450 for slightly used 2 M SIMMs made by Toshiba. Somehow you can manage to buy used modules if you want. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From att!homxc!mchin@beaver.cs.washington.edu Wed Mar 1 09:04:15 1989 > > Are there "2MB" SIMMs available? I mean, 2MB in a single module? Thought > that's what he said, but I've never heard of such a beast. If so, do they > fit into standard SIMM slots? No, I really doubt there are 2 MB SIMMs on the market. You can get 2 1 MB SIMMs though, which is what your your dealer probably meant. - a 2 MB Module. You usually can't add them in 1 MB groupings - screws up the bus. > > Does $1000 sound about right for a 2MB upgrade using SIMMs (I assume the > 1MB kind, unless there really is a 2MB model)? I know RAM chip prices are > falling slowly but slowly (!), but what about SIMM prices? I recall they were > pretty ghastly last summer... Actually, sounds somewhat high. Depending on the speed, you should be able to get 1 M x 9 SIMMS - 80 ns for $425. Getting two of them only costs you $850. These prices are from the back of a magazine and may be bulk prices. Projections place them at $200 by year end, but I'll believe it when I see it. Michael Chin | It could probably be shown by facts AT&T Bell Laboratories | and figures that there is no distinctly att!homxc!mchin | native American criminal class Arpa: mchin@homxc.ATT.COM | except Congress. - Mark Twain -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: ole!ray@beaver.cs.washington.edu (Ray Berry) I've never heard of 2MB sims - 2 mb chips don't exist. Not that it is a physical impossibility, but it would require chips mounted on both sides of the carrier and the resultant assembly would be physically imcompatible, for size reasons, with the sockets that are out there already. As for prices, 1 mB simms are selling for about 20 each in the 100 nsec flavor. The problem is that with most of these motherboards, you have to have one entire bank of the same kind of chip- i.e. 4 MB minimum. Check this out before you make your move. Your machine may not require this- but most do. Motherboards that accept dips are cheaper to feed. 1MB dips are now down to the low 0's, or < 00/megabyte. Prices are moving downward and the longer you wait the cheaper they'll get.. -- Ray Berry KB7HT uucp: ...{uw-beaver|uiucuxc}tikal!ole!ray CS: 73407,3152 Seattle Silicon Corp. 3075 112th Ave NE. Bellevue WA 98004 (206) 828 4422 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jeff Troeger <cornell!ttidca.TTI.COM!troeger@beaver.cs.washington.edu> I just recently finished my search for SIMMS and every company I contacted did not mention anything about 2MB SIMMS. They all advertised 256k and 1MB so it would be a good guess to assume that 2MB don't exist (That's not to say someone doesn't make them, I didn't run into any, and I talked to roughly 10 - 12 companies.) OOPS, just now, I found a 4MEG SIMM advertised for the Compaq 386, so take what I said with a grain of salt. I wasn't explicitly looking for 2MEG SIMMS, so some might have got past me.. I couldn't believe the wide range of prices for SIMMS when I was looking for them. I was looking for 1MB SIMMS and the prices ranged from a low of $110.00 each to a high of $290.00 in low quantity purchases (I was originally quoted $1000.00 from several retail and mail order outfits, but if you contact the companies that deal strictly in memory chips, you can find better prices) Anyone that says they can't find them cheaper isn't really looking hard enough, or are gouging their buyers. Interestingly enough, one electronics firm actually had prices for 1MB SIMMS in their ad (most just say "call for latest prices") This ad said that their SIMMS were going for $380.00, and when I called for a confirmation of that price, they had lowered the price to $290.00! Prices have lowered, but I don't follow the news enough to be able to guess if the prices are going to continue to drop. Because of the lower prices than expected, I managed to get 4MB of 100 ns memory for LESS than the $1000.00 prices quoted originally. (All prices I quoted here are for 100 ns. 1MB x 9 SIMMS, mileage may vary depending on the speed needed) If you are interested in the list of companies I checked, I can e-mail the list to you. -- Jeff Troeger - Citicorp (+) TTI 3100 Ocean Park Bl. Santa Monica, Ca. 90405 (213) 450-9111 x3153 Path: {retix|philabs|csun|psivax}!ttidca!troeger or troeger@ttidca.tti.com - Of All the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: stevel@eleazar.Dartmouth.EDU (Steve Ligett) I haven't ever heard of one SIMM holding 2MB. That is, it's not a standard product from Hitachi, Toshiba, TI, and so forth. If you've got a 16 bit bus, you would need to add 1 MB SIMMs in pairs, giving 2 MB. The 1MB (by 8) SIMMs are getting less expensive nowadays. A lot of people, including me, make them using DIPs. For example, I can't find anyone who'll spend $259 for a 1 MB by 8 SIMM. I'll probably have to drop my price to $200 per magabyte. These are used in Macs. However, you'll need 1 MB by 9 SIMMs (for parity checking). Those are a little more expensive, since they aren't so popular, and have one more chip on them. I have one such SIMM - a Toshiba THM91000-10S (i.e. 1 meg by 9, 100 ns, low-profile surface mount socketed SIMM) left. I bought 25, sold the rest in pairs. I'd sell it for $259. I'll look for another if you want me to. -- Steve Ligett steve.ligett@dartmouth.edu or (decvax harvard linus true)!dartvax!steve.ligett --------------------------------------------------------------------- Again, thanks for the responses. Looks like it pays to call around these days... Dick O'Connor Washington Department of Fisheries Olympia, Washington 98504 Internet Mail: djo7613@blake.acs.washington.edu **************************************************************************** DISCLAIMER: I speak only for myself, not for the Department. Here, anyway! ****************************************************************************
bill@bilver.UUCP (bill vermillion) (03/04/89)
In article <1024@blake.acs.washington.edu> djo7613@blake.acs.washington.edu (Dick O'Connor) writes: >Thanks to all who responded to my question about the fabled "2MB" SIMMs >and current 1MB SIMM prices. I've summarized responses below. The bottom >line is, 2MB SIMMs don't exist (but 1MB SIMMs have to be installed in >pairs) and 1MB x 9 100 ns SIMMs can be had for under $200 now! There are 2MB SIMS out there, but they are not for standard pcs. The IBM 80 series uses 2MB SIM sets in their expansion boards. It is basically 2 sets of 9 mounted based to base on a small module that plugs into one of 4 slots on the exp board. list is about $1400 - real world pricing just under $1k. -- Bill Vermillion - UUCP: {uiucuxc,hoptoad,petsd}!peora!rtmvax!bilver!bill : bill@bilver.UUCP
chasm@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Charles Marslett) (03/05/89)
I had not stuck my nose into this one, because I thought I had nothing to say (but of course that's wrong ;^). However, there are several more or less standard 2 Mb SIMMs (18 1 megabit chips), the most common being the one used in the IBM PS/2 model 70 (I believe). And at Uniforum I saw the guts of the new DG 88000 based workstation which uses 4 Megabyte SIMMs for its memory (here, because they use ECC rather than parity, the module has 44 RAM chips on it rather than 36 or 32). The RAM chips are mounted ALL OVER THE THING, both sides!). Charles Marslett chasm@killer.dallas.tx.us