Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!ukma!uflorida!haven!aplcen!osiris!consult
From: consult@osiris.UUCP (Unix Consultation Mailbox )
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Implications of large memory systems
Message-ID: <2882@osiris.UUCP>
Date: 29 Mar 89 17:57:34 GMT
References: <15184@cup.portal.com> <15407@cup.portal.com> <16230@mimsy.UUCP> <21216@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <13324@steinmetz.ge.com> <28819@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <13433@steinmetz.ge.com>
Reply-To: consult@osiris.UUCP (Unix Consultation Mailbox (Phil))
Organization: The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Information Systems
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Xref: utzoo comp.unix.questions:12524 comp.unix.wizards:15284

In article <13433@steinmetz.ge.com> davidsen@crdos1.UUCP (bill davidsen) writes:
> If the machine is a
>workstation rather than being used for timesharing (many schools try to
>put 32 users on an 8MB Sun), the total memory in use is probably 4-12MB.

We have a pilot system running on a number of single-user diskless Sun 3/50s
and I'll tell you exactly how much memory is in use on each of those
workstations: the entire 4Mb.  We had to double the size of all the server
swap partitions just to keep the systems running.  And even after taking the
-g's and -gx's out of all the makefiles, *and* stripping all the executables,
it's still Page City.

>Do most users need that in a workstation? I don't, as long as I have
>access to a large machine for those rare problems which can use that
>much memory.

I never needed more than the 4Mb in a 3/50 myself.  Of course I was still
doing most of my work on the Pyramids, which helps a lot.  (They've all
got >= 16M main memory and hundreds of Mb swap.  Zippy!)


phil