Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!lll-winken!sun-barr!newstop!sun!imagen!atari!apratt
From: apratt@atari.UUCP (Allan Pratt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: SIMMs for the STE
Message-ID: <2074@atari.UUCP>
Date: 19 Mar 90 18:26:09 GMT
References: <9003110544.6.973@cup.portal.com>
Organization: Atari Corp., Sunnyvale CA
Lines: 42

OK, kids, here's the scoop:  I don't know anything, I only report what
I think is true.  I'm a real person behind the glass screen you see,
and I can be wrong or misinformed.

Don't blame the messenger: if you don't like Atari's policy, say so,
but don't say it in such a way as to blame me.  Also, it won't help
much to say it on Usenet.  Write to Sam T. if you want to be heard.

As it happens, I *am* misinformed about the RAM situation, and I'm
REALLY sorry I got in the middle of this.  It turns out that a policy
decision was made a while ago to the effect that SIMMs (the socketed
kind) are to be used when building STe's.  I don't know if any were
built before that decision, and whether SIPs were used in them.  As has
been pointed out, using SIMMs makes a machine upgradable without
solder.  It does NOT make them user-upgradable, at least not in the
USA, where opening the shield (or maybe the case) voids your warranty.
Furthermore, policy decisions are subject to revision by future policy,
so I still maintain it's a bad idea to assume that an STe has SIMMs
rather than SIPs.

Finally, a side note: using SIMMs is not all rosy.  The advantages of
(dealer-)upgradability must be balanced against the disadvantages
inherent in socketed SIMMs.  They're less reliable: the sockets break, 
the contacts get dirty, the SIMMs come loose, etc.  So your upgradable
STe is less reliable than it would have been with soldered-in SIPs,
along with being more expensive because socket+SIMM usually costs more
than a SIP alone (I think).  Lower reliability also translates into
higher production costs because it lowers the yield in manufacturing,
making the cost-per-shippable-unit higher.

Remember, what I say here is *not* "The Voice of Atari" and in fact
what ANYBODY says is to be interpreted in the context of what that
person knows to be true, or has "heard" is true, and how likely it is
that the person would have heard if the policy changed.  I am *not*
likely to be up-to-date on policy in manufacturing, because it's
FAR from my concern, and I pass things along only to be helpful,
not to be official.

My disclaimer:  Read it.  Live it.  Be it.
============================================
Opinions expressed above do not necessarily	-- Allan Pratt, Atari Corp.
reflect those of Atari Corp. or anyone else.	  ...ames!atari!apratt