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From: bennett@mp.cs.niu.edu (Scott Bennett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: memory (was: slab vs. cube and $$)
Message-ID: <1990Nov30.013031.25032@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Date: 30 Nov 90 01:30:31 GMT
References: <1990Nov28.191405.25218@mp.cs.niu.edu> <12081@life.ai.mit.edu> <1990Nov29.161041.15775@magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu>
Organization: Northern Illinois University
Lines: 76

In article <1990Nov29.161041.15775@magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu> tgingric@magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Tyler S Gingrich) writes:
>In article <12081@life.ai.mit.edu> caroma@rice-chex.ai.mit.edu (Carl R. Manning) writes:
>>In article <1990Nov28.191405.25218@mp.cs.niu.edu> bennett@mp.cs.niu.edu (Scott Bennett) writes:
>>>     Whether they have 8MB, 12MB, or even more, they'll be throwing those
>>>SIMMs away and replacing them as soon as they can afford to when they
>>>discover NeXT has stuck them with nMBx8 SIMMs rather than nMBx9's.  Jeesh.
>>>Nonparity memory was obsoleted in the 1950's.
>>
>>Memory is cheap; add a few more bits and you can have ECC error
>>correction of single bit errors.  Perhaps futures NeXTs can be
>>designed for people or servers who need this much reliability, at
>>least as an option.  I would think that this security could be a good
>>selling point -- look at how 4wd cars and anti-lock brakes are selling
>>these days.
>>
     A closer analogy would be to ask oneself whether one would like
to buy a car that had no indicators (not even idiot lights) for high
coolant temperature, low oil pressure, electrical net discharge, etc.
>
>
>You can get ANY of the Next computers with Parity memory.  The additional

     Really?  Was it an option on the 68030 cubes?  Can the 68030 boards
handle nMbx9 SIMMs?  My machine is a brand-new, old machine (from B'land's
oversold demo unit clearance:-), so if I can replace the garbage that's
in it with civilized memory, I'd like to know.

>cost (list prices) is $500 on Mono systems & $1000 on Color systems.
>
>Also, you can only order 16Mb or 32Mb parity memory systems.  This increases

     Does anyone know the reason for the restriction?

>the base price for any of the systems.
>
>Tyler
>
 
And in article <1990Nov29.130142.15813@ni.umd.edu> louie@sayshell.umd.edu (Louis A. Mamakos) writes:
>>Well actually there are several nexts available with parity memory.
>>its an option, if you want.  Of course, it costs extra
>>All four machines are available with parity.  
>
>According to the beta release notes, installing parity memory will
>also introduce a wait state for memory acceses.  So it looks like you
>will pay a performance penelty if you go that route.

     Why on earth (or anywhere else) would they introduce a wait state
for normal (i.e. parity) memory?  All this is starting to make me think
NeXT has a hidden, dark side sort of like Apple's...
>
>You also have to populate the machine with either ALL parity memery or NO
>parity memory.

     Well, of course.
     BTW, does anyone know where I can get some useful documentation of
the hardware and documentation beyond the novice user level for the 
software?  The _NeXT_User_Reference_ manual that came with the machine
refers to a _NeXT_System_Reference_ manual, but NeXT, Inc. claims that
this manual is no longer available.
>
>louie
>


                                  Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG
                                  Systems Programming
                                  Northern Illinois University
                                  DeKalb, Illinois 60115
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