Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!van-bc!ubc-cs!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!udel!nigel.ee.udel.edu!mccalpin From: mccalpin@perelandra.cms.udel.edu (John D. McCalpin) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.rt Subject: Re: Evaluation of R6000 and AIX Message-ID: Date: 3 Oct 90 11:40:25 GMT References: <1731.27028f1f@zeus.unomaha.edu> <6654@uwm.edu> <282@cadlab.sublink.ORG> Sender: usenet@ee.udel.edu Organization: College of Marine Studies, U. Del. Lines: 27 Nntp-Posting-Host: perelandra.cms.udel.edu In-reply-to: staff@cadlab.sublink.ORG's message of 30 Sep 90 18:48:36 GMT >>>>> On 30 Sep 90 18:48:36 GMT, staff@cadlab.sublink.ORG (Alex Martelli) said: Alex> Don't DREAM of doing serious sw development with just 16 meg of RAM, Alex> your links will CRAWL. If you can afford to stuff the beast with Alex> expensive ECC memory, I believe it would be a great environment The ECC *memory* itself is not expensive. The rather extensive circuitry that IBM puts on its memory boards to do ECC (SECDED), bit-swapping, and chip-swapping is most of the cost. There are 3rd parties currently developing SIMM's to fit into the slots on the memory boards that IBM sells. These will be *much* cheaper than IBM's offering -- maybe $150/MB vs $600/MB (list) or $420/MB (educational discount) from IBM. I will post more info when I get my board populated and my supplier tells me that he is ready to mass produce. There is also a significant possibility that IBM will lower its prices when they announce the support of 4 Mbit technology in its memory boards. As I understand it, the boards already support 256kbit, 1 Mbit and 4 Mbit chips, but IBM is not yet ready to release the 4MByte SIMM's for those boards --- maybe reliability trouble, but more likely just a question of availability.... -- John D. McCalpin mccalpin@perelandra.cms.udel.edu Assistant Professor mccalpin@vax1.udel.edu College of Marine Studies, U. Del. J.MCCALPIN/OMNET