Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!philmtl!ray
From: ray@philmtl.philips.ca (Raymond Dunn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Humor me
Message-ID: <701@philmtl.philips.ca>
Date: 12 Sep 89 23:03:00 GMT
References: <19568@gryphon.COM> <293@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> <1214@marlin.NOSC.MIL> <307@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> <14155@netnews.upenn.edu>
Reply-To: ray@philmtl.philips.ca (Raymond Dunn)
Organization: Philips Electronics Ltd. -  St. Laurent  P.Q., Canada
Lines: 33

In article <307@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> davidsen@crdos1.UUCP (bill davidsen) writes:
>DIPs are 1 bit wide, so for a........

In article <14155@netnews.upenn.edu> silver@eniac.seas.upenn.edu.UUCP (Andy Silverman) responds:
>Correct me if I'm wrong, but the number of bits wide a given chip is entirely
>up to the chip designers....
>You can get DIP-packaged memory chips in 1, 4, and probably 8
>bits wide

So far so good.....

>SIMMs are generally
>just 9 surface mounted 1 bit wide memory chips on a small board which mounts
>vertically in a slot designed specially for it.

Now you fall into the same trap your response is correcting.

SIMMs can and do commonly contain any format of chips, 1, 4 and 8 bits wide,
even _mixtures_ (often to produce 9 bit wide SIMMS commonly used on PC's for 8
bits plus parity).

On the original question of cost, SIMMS are more expensive than DIP chips
because SIMMS are made from DIPS mounted on a small PC board with connector
fingers.

The cost of the board and the mounting of the chips is obviously going to
produce a cost increment over that of the individual chips, even when compared
to a single chip with the same number of bits as that on the SIMM.
-- 
Ray Dunn.                    | UUCP: ..!uunet!philmtl!ray
Philips Electronics Ltd.     | TEL : (514) 744-8200  Ext: 2347
600 Dr Frederik Philips Blvd | FAX : (514) 744-6455
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