Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!m.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies
From: gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: New Macintosh Strategy
Message-ID: <77800049@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 30 Oct 90 22:58:00 GMT
References: <306@cti1.UUCP>
Lines: 24
Nf-ID: #R:cti1.UUCP:306:m.cs.uiuc.edu:77800049:000:1087
Nf-From: m.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies    Oct 30 16:58:00 1990


The Mac was introduced in late '84/early '85 (at least, that was the
first mac commercial, and the special issue of Newsweek with
Apple-only advertising).  Since that time, the minimum amount of RAM
necessary to run the latest system software has gone from 128K to
2048K (in 6 years).  This is a factor of 16 -- a factor of 2 every 1.5
years.  Note that these numbers should be doubled if the purpose is
programming (smalltalk, mathematica, etc).

Here is why you need VM in your macintosh.

At the previously mentioned rates, the SE and Mac Classic (4Mb) will
be unable to support a "minimum" memory configuration in mid 1992;
the mac II (8Mb, no PMMU) will be unable to support a "minimum" memory
configuration in late 1993; and the Mac LC (17Mb) will be defunct in
early 1995.

I hope that no buyers of these machines are planning on running
current software and system/finder for more than about 4 years.


Don W. Gillies, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Illinois
1304 W. Springfield, Urbana, Ill 61801      
ARPA: gillies@cs.uiuc.edu   UUCP: {uunet,harvard}!uiucdcs!gillies