5 ms·

To think that the RAM in the smallest system I have used in my life is 256MB (somewhere in 2005 and in Windows 98 and 40GB HD) and that people used to run entir

To think that the RAM in the smallest system I have used in my life is 256MB (somewhere in 2005 and in Windows 98 and 40GB HD) and that people used to run entire PCs in less. Feels unreal (just like people talking about 4K memory as state of the art decades ago). Nowadays people are indifferent to Memory sizes as they just keep increasing every year.

Tepix 9y ago
The Commodore VC-20 came with 5kb of RAM and was a "real computer". Nowadays if you play around with Arduinos, the AVR ATmega328P on an Arduino Uno board has 2KB SRAM.
- cr0sh 9y ago
  You can't really compare the ATmega328 and the VIC-20 accurately, mainly because the former is (arguably) a Harvard Architecture device. For the most part, the cpu in the 328 doesn't have general read-write access to the 32k flash memory (used for program storage), outside of some basic functionality mainly limited to bootloader usage (at a machine code level, and IIRC only for the first block of memory), and read-only capability otherwise (so you can store data prior to loading it into flash to be read later by the code). The 2k static RAM (SRAM) is read-write always and anywhere, anytime - and so it used mainly for variable storage. There's also a small amount of general purpose flash memory available, which is also read-write capable (but has a limited lifespan just like any flash memory - though from testing, in general you won't reach the lifespan unless you do something really stupid) that is typically used to store configuration settings and whatnot between reboots. Whereas on the VIC-20, the CPU had complete access to all of the RAM and ROM, and full control over the address and data lines of the bus. Each architecture has its pluses and minuses, but in general the Harvard scheme is used when you don't want the code to be able to alter itself (either intentionally or accidentally due to a buffer overrun or something), which might cause a problem that could have consequences; for an embedded microcontroller, this makes sense, as you just want the thing to run continuously and reliably on every reboot or restart, without worry that the code will corrupt itself and lead to problems.
dodo6502 9y ago
The Atari 2600 had 128 bytes of ram
SonOfLilit 9y ago
Around 2005 or 2006 I had a Windows 98 computer with 32MB RAM in my dorm room, it was more than adequate for browsing the web and writing Ruby and C (including doing an OpenGL tutorial, NeHe's of course). Note that according to the first google result for "2006 computer spec"[1], 1GB RAM was common at the time. Oh, Firefox 1.0, we miss you so! [1] http://vbcity.com/forums/t/133493.aspx http://vbcity.com/forums/t/133493.aspx
khedoros1 9y ago
The first computer that I remember in my family was a PC Jr with either 64 or 128KB of memory. We had some variant of the Apple II at school in the computer lab (I'd guess the Apple IIe, with 64-1MB of RAM). I remember in the early 90s having a PC, with the memory going up through the single megabyte range, then into the 10s as we upgraded. Maybe 8MB in 1993 and 32MB by 1997? My parents gave me my own computer in 1999 with 96MB of RAM. I think I upgraded it to either 256 or 512MB around 2002 or 2003. Disk storage grew along with it. Hundreds of KB with the earliest machines I used (on floppies and cartridges), hundreds of MB in the 90s (and like 1.1GB when Dad added a second hard drive to that machine!!), 6.4GB in my own first one, and so on. It's amusing to think of my son saying things like "I've used a computer with only 4GB of RAM!" when he's older.

Tepix 9y ago

The Commodore VC-20 came with 5kb of RAM and was a "real computer". Nowadays if you play around with Arduinos, the AVR ATmega328P on an Arduino Uno board has 2KB SRAM.

cr0sh 9y ago
You can't really compare the ATmega328 and the VIC-20 accurately, mainly because the former is (arguably) a Harvard Architecture device. For the most part, the cpu in the 328 doesn't have general read-write access to the 32k flash memory (used for program storage), outside of some basic functionality mainly limited to bootloader usage (at a machine code level, and IIRC only for the first block of memory), and read-only capability otherwise (so you can store data prior to loading it into flash to be read later by the code). The 2k static RAM (SRAM) is read-write always and anywhere, anytime - and so it used mainly for variable storage. There's also a small amount of general purpose flash memory available, which is also read-write capable (but has a limited lifespan just like any flash memory - though from testing, in general you won't reach the lifespan unless you do something really stupid) that is typically used to store configuration settings and whatnot between reboots. Whereas on the VIC-20, the CPU had complete access to all of the RAM and ROM, and full control over the address and data lines of the bus. Each architecture has its pluses and minuses, but in general the Harvard scheme is used when you don't want the code to be able to alter itself (either intentionally or accidentally due to a buffer overrun or something), which might cause a problem that could have consequences; for an embedded microcontroller, this makes sense, as you just want the thing to run continuously and reliably on every reboot or restart, without worry that the code will corrupt itself and lead to problems.

dodo6502 9y ago

The Atari 2600 had 128 bytes of ram

SonOfLilit 9y ago

Around 2005 or 2006 I had a Windows 98 computer with 32MB RAM in my dorm room, it was more than adequate for browsing the web and writing Ruby and C (including doing an OpenGL tutorial, NeHe's of course). Note that according to the first google result for "2006 computer spec"[1], 1GB RAM was common at the time. Oh, Firefox 1.0, we miss you so! [1] http://vbcity.com/forums/t/133493.aspx http://vbcity.com/forums/t/133493.aspx

khedoros1 9y ago

The first computer that I remember in my family was a PC Jr with either 64 or 128KB of memory. We had some variant of the Apple II at school in the computer lab (I'd guess the Apple IIe, with 64-1MB of RAM). I remember in the early 90s having a PC, with the memory going up through the single megabyte range, then into the 10s as we upgraded. Maybe 8MB in 1993 and 32MB by 1997? My parents gave me my own computer in 1999 with 96MB of RAM. I think I upgraded it to either 256 or 512MB around 2002 or 2003. Disk storage grew along with it. Hundreds of KB with the earliest machines I used (on floppies and cartridges), hundreds of MB in the 90s (and like 1.1GB when Dad added a second hard drive to that machine!!), 6.4GB in my own first one, and so on. It's amusing to think of my son saying things like "I've used a computer with only 4GB of RAM!" when he's older.