lm@snafu.Sun.COM (Larry McVoy) (05/02/90)
In article <318@necssd.NEC.COM> harrison@necssd.NEC.COM (Mark Harrison) writes: >Here is the story I was told. I have heard it in several versions, and >classify it as an "urban legend." If anyone can {clar,ver}ify this, please >do. > >When IBM built the 360, it was as expensive to build a 16K memory board as >a 32K memory board. So, if your ordered a 16K memory board, you received >a 32K memory board with 16K shorted out. If you subsequently ordered the >16K to 32K memory upgrade (for thousands of $$$), they sent a technician >out to clip the wire that shorted out the memory. Instant upgrade! I can believe this. When I was working on the mem driver (a long hard project :-) at ETA systems I had a visit from some marketing dweebs that wanted to know how hard it would be to make the software pretend that half of shared mem (2 gigs) wasn't there. When I quit laughing I noticed that they weren't. Yup. Dead serious. --- What I say is my opinion. I am not paid to speak for Sun, I'm paid to hack. Besides, I frequently read news when I'm drjhgunghc, err, um, drunk. Larry McVoy, Sun Microsystems (415) 336-7627 ...!sun!lm or lm@sun.com