Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!shelby!agate!ziploc!eps
From: eps@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: 4MB SIMMs from Chip Merchant: 4MBx9 yes 4MBx8 no
Message-ID: <1326@toaster.SFSU.EDU>
Date: 17 Feb 91 06:41:51 GMT
References: <1324@toaster.SFSU.EDU>
Reply-To: eps@cs.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott)
Organization: San Francisco State University
Lines: 39

I've been getting mail from people who are apparently confused
about this posting.

I am *not* mixing parity and non-parity SIMMs.

4 4MBx8 SIMMs from the same manufacturing lot, with no other
memory installed, did not work.  I tried both banks.

Replacing *all* of them with 4MBx9 SIMMs *did* work, as does
using only 1MBx8 SIMMs--which was the original configuration.

What I ultimately want is 4 4MBx8 + 4 1MBx8 = 20MB non-parity.

* * * End facts; begin opinions:

There's no question that going from 8MB to 16MB yielded a
dramatic performance improvement.  The 8MB configuration was
heavily paging.  Even in non-GUI "console" mode, it was clear
that 8MB barely cut it.   With 16MB I could load two typical
Applications with no apparent degradation; with a third it began
paging to the 105MB, but no where near as badly as with 8MB RAM.
But it's obvious when you "go virtual."  Another 4MB should let
me run one or two more concurrent apps and still impress tour
groups.  :-)

Part of the "problem" is that so many of our users are used to
working on "primitive" microcomputers where it takes lots of time
to start an application, but it's then fully memory-resident,
and "as fast as the machine will let it."  With 8MB, the
NextStation mostly sucks a thick milkshake through a very thin
straw, with occasional bursts of the "15 screaming MIPS" it's
supposed to show.   Double that, and it pretty much lives up to
the hype.  The Quantum's a dog, though.

BTW, we ordered our NextStation Color machines with 16MB RAM
from the outset--we need them to be usable out of the box when
they finally get here.

					-=EPS=-