3 ms·
Yes, and 640K of memory should be enough for anybody.
by tectonic 7y ago
Yes, and 640K of memory should be enough for anybody.
- alanfranz 7y agoBut the 640k limit was imposed by the cpu, not the os. It was a widespread nonsense that Gates invented it.
- timbit42 7y agoThe memory limit of a CPU is based on the address lines. The 8088 and 8086 have 20 address lines permitting 1 MB of RAM. Of course more can be banked utilizing an MMU. So the 640K limit was not imposed by the CPU. The system designers needed some memory for ROMs, video memory and other I/O. They decided 384K was needed for those things, leaving 640K for user RAM.
- alanfranz 7y agoBut the 1MB limit for address space was the hard constraint. 640kb was not a number invented out of the blue by some MS designer. It could have been 800kb or 900kb, would that make a difference? Also, 8086 and 8088 had no MMU afaik.
- nolok 7y agoDifference being that one was not actually said by Gates: https://www.computerworld.com/article/2534312/the--640k--quote-won-t-go-away----but-did-gates-really-say-it-.html https://www.computerworld.com/article/2534312/the--640k--quo...
- david-gpu 7y agoBesides, it's a reasonable thing to say in specific contexts. Never understood why it is used to ridicule.