varney@cbnewsd.att.com (Al Varney) (06/06/91)
In article <55538@nigel.ee.udel.edu> PYC136@uriacc.uri.edu (Andy Patrizio) writes: >"Dan Galpin (Amiga-quester" <galpin@ucscb.ucsc.edu> writes: >> ... People sell 50Mhz MacIIFX repackages with 128MBytes of RAM (using >>16 MB simms.) Show me an Amiga that can ... be expanded to 128Megs of RAM. Is the 128Megs a limit for some reason? Seriously, what is the "usable" size for MacIIFX? Is it different for System 6 vs. 7 vs. A/UX? What is the maximum number of users supported by such a beast? > >Secondly, what in the world do you need 128 Meg of RAM for? Even UNIX doesn't >suck up that much memory. While UNIX(tm :-)) may not "suck up" that much memory, it's users do. Supporting 500+ simultaneous users, many of whom wallow in GNU and/or Emacs-style software environments, producing PostScript output, etc. can really suck up the memory. It can't all be virtual memory, some of it has to be REAL. :-) Users have a tendency to find a use for ANY available resource, whether CPU cycles, processors, memory, disk space, desk space, shelf space, etc. I've observed this for 25+ years, ever since we added more memory to the old IBM 1620... Ask some R&D company or engineering school or other heavy computing supporter to plot the last 15 years "number of users" vs. the following: CPU cycles/second, main memory, disk storage, square miles of computer paper, etc. It's much worse than exponential... Al Varney, AT&T Network Systems, Lisle, IL