Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!eecae!netnews.upenn.edu!rutgers!deimos!uxc!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!uxg.cso.uiuc.edu!uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!mcdonald
From: mcdonald@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: 640kb limit on DOS?
Message-ID: <45900178@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 11 Dec 88 15:21:00 GMT
References: <8043@ihlpl.ATT.COM>
Lines: 14
Nf-ID: #R:ihlpl.ATT.COM:8043:uxe.cso.uiuc.edu:45900178:000:638
Nf-From: uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!mcdonald    Dec 11 09:21:00 1988



>Note that the first "personal" computer I owned [1/3 of] was an IBM 1620 with
>20K of memory and a card read/punch and console typewriter for I/O.  We later

That's 20K DECIMAL DIGITS of memory - 6bits per digit, 4 for the 
number, one parity, one flag bit. "Word" length was up to the full
memory length, one add instruction could add two 9000 digit long words.
The system clock actually slowed to 10Hz when the typewriter was
working (literally, the logic ran at 10 Hz. Not 10 kilohertz or
10 Megahertz, really 10 Hertz).

The first personal computer I "owned" was a PDP-8e - a RISC machine
with a 3.3 Mhz clock and 12bit words. :-)