PC 4GB RAM limit

Al Dykes wrote:

In article ,
David Maynard wrote:

AT wrote:

On 22 May 2005 10:51:55 -0400, (Al Dykes) wrote:



In article ,
Mxsmanic wrote:


David Maynard writes:



"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home."
Ken Olsen, the founder & CEO of Digital Equipment Corporation

That is still largely true today. An important limiting factor on PC
sales today is the fact that many people just don't want a PC.

--
Transpose hotmail and mxsmanic in my e-mail address to reach me directly.


Most don't "want" their own 21 inch TV, either. One or two per
household is a huge market.

BTW: the famous Olsen quote is out of context according to Schein (who
worked for Olsen for about 30 years) in his recent book _DEC Is Dead,
Long Live DEC_. What Olsen said was that people didn't want PCs doing
stupid things like keeping track of what's in you refrigerator. That
being said, he did effectivley veto product proposals that may have
beat Compaq at it's own game (Compaq did not yet exist when Olsen made
this quote.)

(Don't argue with me about this. I'm only quoting the book)


The funny thing was Olsen said it just as the early DEC machines (PDP1-9, early
11s and 15s) were heading for retirement - though still useful (Unix and B were
designed on a PDP-7 that Bell Labs had sitting in a corner) - and those old
machines were showing up in dorm rooms, home basements and garages, anyplace we
could find enough relatively vermin-free space for a mini or a midi (remember it
was an "acquired" long dusty 8-I from a university basement pile or a
multi-thousand Altaire at best, and the Altaire had less-available softweare or
storage power.

More important, I think is the Micro$oft quote that "no one will need more than
640K"

Except Bill Gates never said it.



And the 640k line is not Bill's fault.

Yep. I always wondered how people could even imagine that 'Bill Gates' was
'responsible' for IBM hardware designs.

I can imagine that someone, somewhere, said something akin to it, though,
because it makes sense and is correct in context. With the typical
'personal computer' of the time having no more than 64KByte of system RAM
it's reasonable to conclude 10 times that is 'enough'.

IBM designed the ROM BIOS and
nailed the address at 640k.

I'm not sure who 'designed' the BIOS but IBM bought the original hardware
design from a small computer firm (just as they bought DOS from Bill Gates
and company) and it's the system architecture that allocates it.

Prior to that I guess everything was
bootstraped in on each boot.

There was no 'prior', for an IBM PC.

Incidently, C. Gorden Bell and team are still hard at work at MS trying to make
the computer a sensible kitchen appliance, a perfect memory-of-your-life
program, etc. and he was only Olsen's RH man.

Olsen was out of power long before the microP really came into being, pre-Q
creaton I believe.

Olsen was replaced as CEO in 1992.


Olsen had given up some power to a management team long before he
left, but it was too late. Some of us think DEC lost it's soul as
early as 1984.


Perhaps

On Mon, 23 May 2005 06:11:14 +0200, Mxsmanic
wrote:

kony writes:

Most people don't technically "require" electric can
openers, microwaves, or more than one pair of shoes either.
"Require" is a pointless word to use in this context, it may
even be inhumane to expect someone in a modern society to
only have in their possessions what they "require" to stay
alive.

Many people don't require and do not WANT a PC.


Luckily for them, they can get one of these instead.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7977737/

David Maynard wrote:

I'm not sure who 'designed' the BIOS but IBM bought the original
hardware design from a small computer firm (just as they bought DOS from
Bill Gates and company) and it's the system architecture that allocates it.

IBM did not buy DOS.

David Maynard wrote:

I'm not sure who 'designed' the BIOS

Apparently David Bradley of IBM built the BIOS for the PC.

http://news.indiainfo.com/2004/11/20/2011bradley.html
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/0...delete.man.ap/

"Even though "ctrl alt del" is most noted of his achievements, he is
credited for a lot more than that. He holds seven US patents and is also
accredited for developing the all-famous ROM BIOS. He is an adjunct
professor at Florida Atlantic and North Carolina State Universities. His
academic career is equally bright. He is also the author of 'Assembly
Language Programming for the IBM Personal Computer'.

"And at the 20-year celebration of IBM PC, when Bradley said, "I might
have invented it (ctrl alt del) but Bill made it famous"; everyone
laughed but Bill Gates did not even try to. He kept a grim face ...

According to a MetaFacts, Inc. 2004 survey using responses from about 30,000
questionnaires:
Fifty-eight percent of American households own PCs.
Twenty-seven of American housholds have broadband internet connection.
Fifty-seven percent of American households have some form of internet
connection.

According to another source, 535 million PCs are in use world wide.

According to 'mxsmanic' "...there is a big wide world out there beyond the
geeks, and almost no part of it is interested in computers, in any form."

Phil Weldon

"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
...
kony writes:

What's your point again?
That because "some" don't want one, this means all
technology should stand still?

No. My point is that there is a big wide world out there beyond the
geeks, and almost no part of it is interested in computers, in any form.

Again, what is the point?
Random observations about minorities is kinda wasteful.

That's why geek arguments are so weak. Most people aren't geeks.

Yep, the size is a large part of it. What if you were a
woman and had enough room in your purse for a smaller
version?

I'd use the room for something else.

Transportability and weight have everything to do
with how portable something is. Further, smaller devices
more readily find their ways into new places like cars and
perhaps classroom desks.

For what purpose?

And how do you type on such small computers? How do you read the tiny
screens?

You ought to go to stores and advise them of this wisdom, as
many stores are still concluding that they are selling them.

Some sell them, some don't. The attraction is fat margins, not volume.

--
Transpose hotmail and mxsmanic in my e-mail address to reach me directly.

Phil Weldon writes:

According to another source, 535 million PCs are in use world wide.

According to 'mxsmanic' "...there is a big wide world out there beyond the
geeks, and almost no part of it is interested in computers, in any form."

There are over six billion people in the world, and a great many of
those 535 million PCs are used in offices, and many people who own a PC
have more than one, or use one at the office as well. So only a small
fraction of the world population has regular access to a PC, especially
outside work.

--
Transpose hotmail and mxsmanic in my e-mail address to reach me directly.

Abacus Technician # 23,341 writes:

Luckily for them, they can get one of these instead.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7977737/

I'm sure it'll sell like hotcakes, like all of its predecessors.

--
Transpose hotmail and mxsmanic in my e-mail address to reach me directly.

Matt wrote:
David Maynard wrote:

I'm not sure who 'designed' the BIOS but IBM bought the original
hardware design from a small computer firm (just as they bought DOS
from Bill Gates and company) and it's the system architecture that
allocates it.


IBM did not buy DOS.

I guess it depends on how you want define 'buy'. In 1980 IBM hired
Microsoft to provide DOS for their new "personal computer." Microsoft did,
retaining the rights to sell it independently, and the rest is history.

Matt wrote:

David Maynard wrote:

I'm not sure who 'designed' the BIOS


Apparently David Bradley of IBM built the BIOS for the PC.

http://news.indiainfo.com/2004/11/20/2011bradley.html
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/0...delete.man.ap/

"Even though "ctrl alt del" is most noted of his achievements, he is
credited for a lot more than that. He holds seven US patents and is also
accredited for developing the all-famous ROM BIOS. He is an adjunct
professor at Florida Atlantic and North Carolina State Universities. His
academic career is equally bright. He is also the author of 'Assembly
Language Programming for the IBM Personal Computer'.

"And at the 20-year celebration of IBM PC, when Bradley said, "I might
have invented it (ctrl alt del) but Bill made it famous"; everyone
laughed but Bill Gates did not even try to. He kept a grim face ...

Thanks.

It doesn't really matter to the point, though, because it's the system
architecture that defined the memory allocation. The BIOS just follows it.

Mxsmanic wrote:

Phil Weldon writes:


According to another source, 535 million PCs are in use world wide.

According to 'mxsmanic' "...there is a big wide world out there beyond the
geeks, and almost no part of it is interested in computers, in any form."


There are over six billion people in the world, and a great many of
those 535 million PCs are used in offices, and many people who own a PC
have more than one, or use one at the office as well. So only a small
fraction of the world population has regular access to a PC, especially
outside work.


Nice snip job for the classic out of context argument switcheroo.