[comp.sys.mac.hardware] How much memory I can have in Mac classic ?

tsai@Veritas.COM (Cary Tsai) (01/14/91)

I plan to buy a Mac classic with 2M bytes memory and 40M disk. I am 
wondering that I can buy another 2M bytes memory for that little machine.
I read an article from a Mac magazine saying that Mac classics only can
have 2.5 Mega bytes memory at most. Is that a correct statement.

I am a mainframe, mini, unix, pc-dos person. I only know Mac a little bit.
I was surprised by Mac OS and HyperCard/HyperTalk 2 weeks ago, although
I worte programs for more than 10 years.  The primary reason to buy Mac
is to learn HyperCard/HyperTalk and some personal stuffs. After I knew
Mac more , I prefer to use Mac rather than Window 3 at home.

Any info would be appreciated. And long life to Mac.(I wish)

sam@wolfen.cc.uow.oz (Sam Tan) (01/14/91)

This is the memory layout in a Classic:

There is 1 MB of RAM soldered on the mother board.

Apple sell a memory expansion card that has 1 MB soldered on there, but
with 2 empty SIMM slots. You can put it anything you want in the SIMM slots
but you must do it in pairs. You can only go up to 8 MB on a Classic, although
the ROM is 32-bit clean. This is due to the lack of a true PMMU system.

In closing, you can put it anything you want into the SIMM slots but you will
only see the first 8 MB. You can get INITs that will let you access more than
8 MB, but not more than 8 MB at a time, ie. use MultiFinder and each application
can only see 8 MB.

Enjoy!

sam@wolfen.cc.uow.edu.au

bdugan@teri.bio.uci.edu (Bill Dugan) (01/14/91)

In article <6730@wolfen.cc.uow.oz> sam@wolfen.cc.uow.oz (Sam Tan) writes:
>This is the memory layout in a Classic:
>
>There is 1 MB of RAM soldered on the mother board.
>
>Apple sell a memory expansion card that has 1 MB soldered on there, but
>with 2 empty SIMM slots. You can put it anything you want in the SIMM slots
>but you must do it in pairs. You can only go up to 8 MB on a Classic, although
>the ROM is 32-bit clean. This is due to the lack of a true PMMU system.

This is not true!  The Mac Classic can only have 4 megs of RAM, same as
a Plus or SE.  And the PMMU's presence or absence doesn't have anything
to do with the arbitrary eight-meg limit on the Mac II line; the problem
came from the memory layout Apple 'decided to have' when they wrote the
ROMs in the first place.  System 7 will let you have up to 128 Mb of
directly addressed RAM, and this is not dependent on a PMMU.

bill