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From: jeff@cattell.psych.upenn.edu (Jeff White)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: MacII Memory Limit
Message-ID: <2160@cattell.psych.upenn.edu>
Date: 12 Dec 89 16:55:08 GMT
References: <77800001@m.cs.uiuc.edu> <1276@key.COM> <5596@internal.Apple.COM> <5553@ncar.ucar.edu>
Reply-To: jeff@cattell.psych.upenn.edu.UUCP (Jeff White)
Organization: University of Pennsylvania
Lines: 25

In article <5553@ncar.ucar.edu> hpoppe@bierstadt.UCAR.EDU (Herb Poppe) writes:
>
>On the other hand, a ROM upgrade would be nice if it permitted 1 Meg
>Macs to run System 7.0. This would mean that Apple could drop the
>parallel support of System 6.x those those machines. It would allow
>Apple to sell new 1 Meg machines with System 7.0 in the box.

  System 7.0 will run on Mac Plus's/SE's, you'll just need at least 2 Megs
of RAM.  While I guess Apple could someone design 7.0 to run with only 1 Meg
if they put a lot of the new code in ROM, I think economically it's still
probably cheaper to buy RAM.  You can get 2 Megs of RAM (bumping a 1 Meg
system up to 2.5M) for about $170, and the price seems to be dropping
every week.  How much do you think Apple would charge for the new ROMS and
replacement of them?  I would have to think at least around $100, so you
don't gain that much.  I'd rather have the extra RAM.
  Also, it's possible that Plus's/SE's may not be able to take a ROM as 
large as what is needed.  There is 128k of ROM in the Plus (maybe SE as
well, not sure).  A IIx has 256k, and I think the IIxci has 512k (at least
256k).  I'm not sure you could put 1 Meg or more of ROM in a Plus without
another logic board, and once you are thinking about this, I think the
change becomes unfeasible.

					Jeff White
					University of Pennsylvania
					jeff@eniac.seas.upenn.edu