7 ms·

I've done some shopping around, and the best pricing I can find puts these 128GB RAM at about $1,500. Each. Yes, each. Some back of the envelope math -- or ma

by fasteo 7y ago

I've done some shopping around, and the best pricing I can find puts these 128GB RAM at about $1,500. Each. Yes, each. Some back of the envelope math -- or math in your head if you are good at that sort of thing -- put the price of 1.5TB of RAM at a cool $18,000. If my memory serves me well, I routinely bought 1Mb RAM modules for 5.500 Spanish pesetas (33 Euro). This was around 1987-1990 I believe. If my math is right, that would be more than 4 million Euro for 128GB RAM.

std_throwaway 7y ago
An Arduino UNO comes with 2 kB of RAM installed and retails for about 20$. If you want to get 1.5 TB of RAM by connecting them (not accounting for any overhead on each controller) you would need 800 Million Arudino UNOs which would cost you about 16 Billion Dollars.
- segfaultbuserr 7y ago
  > An Arduino UNO comes with 2 kB of RAM installed and retails for about 20$. This is not an accurate calculation, first, the main cost of an Arduino is its PCB and the supporting electronics, plus some profit margins to cover the overhead for the manufacturer. Also, the RAM is not "installed", the actual device where the 2 KiB RAM resides in, is etched on the same silicon chip of the Atmega328p microcontroller. A 328p only costs $2 each, and close to $1.5 in huge quantity [0]. Since it's pretty much a standalone device, needs nothing (not even an external crystal) but power, some wirings and two decoupling capacitors to operate in a minimum system (and yes, even this configuration can run standard Arduino code). Let use a conservative number, $3, it would "only" cost you about 2.4 billion dollars. Furthermore, Atmega328p is marketed at a "mid-end" 8-bit microcontroller offered by Atmel, mainly for its GPIOs. If you use an ATTiny1614, which is basically the same hardware with much fewer GPIO pins, it would only cost $0.7 for each, let's use $1 as a conservative number, then it would only cost you 0.8 billion dollars for 1.5 TiB of RAM, which should already be considered a very impressive number, since you couldn't even get a NAND gate, or even a MOSFET in the late 1970s for less than one buck. If adjusted for inflation, today's price would be as low as ~$0.17 per 1024 bytes. And then you consider the fact that it's not only a RAM, but in fact a computer... Isn't it a miracle of Moore's Law? [0] https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Microchip-Technology-Atmel/ATMEGA328-PU?qs=sGAEpiMZZMuHCAZ7U3Ea2vH90mYkP45F https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Microchip-Technology-At...
  - turbo_fart_box 7y ago
    It's a joke.
    - std_throwaway 7y ago
      I thought the topic was unreasonable comparisons. I was wrong; it was nostalgia. I should have compared with magnet core memory used in the Apollo program as an example. My gut tells me that we don't have enough rocket fuel to install that kind of memory in space.
  - std_throwaway 7y ago
    The memory sticks we're talking about here also come on a PCB, so we should not exclude that cost. What use would loose chips be if they are not soldered onto a PCB? You could argue that there could be a supplier that produces working memory sticks for a cheaper price. I'm not contending that. These products, however, are unfamiliar to most people and Arduino UNO is a brand name that many people recognize. There are many cheap knockoffs of that product that may or may not be compatible. I would prefer to stay with respected manufacturers in this case. It is true that those micro controllers are bundled with the memory. In other words, the memory also has computing power installed. A capability that some modern memory chips also include. You may argue that we should compare with those memory chips, however, in the case of micro controllers we cannot separate the memory from the computing unit and we need the computing unit for communication. Is the comparison thus unfair? Maybe.
toyg 7y ago
Once adjusted for inflation, it's more like 7 millions. To be fair, you have to factor in Moore's law. I'm not great at math, but I think you'd still end up with something like half a million. $18k for 1.5TB is still a steal.
drewg123 7y ago
In 1993, one of my first tasks in a new job as a sysadmin was to install 256MB of RAM into a DEC Alpha 3000/500. I remember the RAM cost on the order of $20k... I don't remember the exact price, but I remember thinking that the RAM was worth more than I was, and I'd better not screw it up.
- zrobotics 7y ago
  Definitely the time to be testing the ESD ground point first... And continuity for the wriststrap cord... In fact, better touch a grounded chassis at the same time!
- eesmith 7y ago
  graph of "Historical Cost of Computer Memory and Storage", https://jcmit.net/mem2015.htm https://jcmit.net/mem2015.htm . Memory data at https://jcmit.net/memoryprice.htm https://jcmit.net/memoryprice.htm . 1994 prices are US$30.0/MB or $8K for 256MB of PC-grade memory. Looks like the DEC machine used 200-pin SIMMs, says https://www.memoryx.com/ms15da.html https://www.memoryx.com/ms15da.html (listing 64MB for $200). Don't know how that compares. BTW, $400 for a DEC Alpha 3000/500 at https://www.ebay.com/itm/DEC-DIGITAL-ALPHA-SERVER-3000-500-PE50A-A9-54-21149-02/173871227547 https://www.ebay.com/itm/DEC-DIGITAL-ALPHA-SERVER-3000-500-P... .
jsjohnst 7y ago
I bought an 8MB RAM module at wholesale pricing in ~1993 for about $400, so that pricing seems a bit low to me, especially for the time window given.

by fasteo 7y ago

std_throwaway 7y ago

An Arduino UNO comes with 2 kB of RAM installed and retails for about 20$. If you want to get 1.5 TB of RAM by connecting them (not accounting for any overhead on each controller) you would need 800 Million Arudino UNOs which would cost you about 16 Billion Dollars.

segfaultbuserr 7y ago
> An Arduino UNO comes with 2 kB of RAM installed and retails for about 20$. This is not an accurate calculation, first, the main cost of an Arduino is its PCB and the supporting electronics, plus some profit margins to cover the overhead for the manufacturer. Also, the RAM is not "installed", the actual device where the 2 KiB RAM resides in, is etched on the same silicon chip of the Atmega328p microcontroller. A 328p only costs $2 each, and close to $1.5 in huge quantity [0]. Since it's pretty much a standalone device, needs nothing (not even an external crystal) but power, some wirings and two decoupling capacitors to operate in a minimum system (and yes, even this configuration can run standard Arduino code). Let use a conservative number, $3, it would "only" cost you about 2.4 billion dollars. Furthermore, Atmega328p is marketed at a "mid-end" 8-bit microcontroller offered by Atmel, mainly for its GPIOs. If you use an ATTiny1614, which is basically the same hardware with much fewer GPIO pins, it would only cost $0.7 for each, let's use $1 as a conservative number, then it would only cost you 0.8 billion dollars for 1.5 TiB of RAM, which should already be considered a very impressive number, since you couldn't even get a NAND gate, or even a MOSFET in the late 1970s for less than one buck. If adjusted for inflation, today's price would be as low as ~$0.17 per 1024 bytes. And then you consider the fact that it's not only a RAM, but in fact a computer... Isn't it a miracle of Moore's Law? [0] https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Microchip-Technology-Atmel/ATMEGA328-PU?qs=sGAEpiMZZMuHCAZ7U3Ea2vH90mYkP45F https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Microchip-Technology-At...
- turbo_fart_box 7y ago
  It's a joke.
  - std_throwaway 7y ago
    I thought the topic was unreasonable comparisons. I was wrong; it was nostalgia. I should have compared with magnet core memory used in the Apollo program as an example. My gut tells me that we don't have enough rocket fuel to install that kind of memory in space.
- std_throwaway 7y ago
  The memory sticks we're talking about here also come on a PCB, so we should not exclude that cost. What use would loose chips be if they are not soldered onto a PCB? You could argue that there could be a supplier that produces working memory sticks for a cheaper price. I'm not contending that. These products, however, are unfamiliar to most people and Arduino UNO is a brand name that many people recognize. There are many cheap knockoffs of that product that may or may not be compatible. I would prefer to stay with respected manufacturers in this case. It is true that those micro controllers are bundled with the memory. In other words, the memory also has computing power installed. A capability that some modern memory chips also include. You may argue that we should compare with those memory chips, however, in the case of micro controllers we cannot separate the memory from the computing unit and we need the computing unit for communication. Is the comparison thus unfair? Maybe.

toyg 7y ago

Once adjusted for inflation, it's more like 7 millions. To be fair, you have to factor in Moore's law. I'm not great at math, but I think you'd still end up with something like half a million. $18k for 1.5TB is still a steal.

drewg123 7y ago

In 1993, one of my first tasks in a new job as a sysadmin was to install 256MB of RAM into a DEC Alpha 3000/500. I remember the RAM cost on the order of $20k... I don't remember the exact price, but I remember thinking that the RAM was worth more than I was, and I'd better not screw it up.

zrobotics 7y ago
Definitely the time to be testing the ESD ground point first... And continuity for the wriststrap cord... In fact, better touch a grounded chassis at the same time!
eesmith 7y ago
graph of "Historical Cost of Computer Memory and Storage", https://jcmit.net/mem2015.htm https://jcmit.net/mem2015.htm . Memory data at https://jcmit.net/memoryprice.htm https://jcmit.net/memoryprice.htm . 1994 prices are US$30.0/MB or $8K for 256MB of PC-grade memory. Looks like the DEC machine used 200-pin SIMMs, says https://www.memoryx.com/ms15da.html https://www.memoryx.com/ms15da.html (listing 64MB for $200). Don't know how that compares. BTW, $400 for a DEC Alpha 3000/500 at https://www.ebay.com/itm/DEC-DIGITAL-ALPHA-SERVER-3000-500-PE50A-A9-54-21149-02/173871227547 https://www.ebay.com/itm/DEC-DIGITAL-ALPHA-SERVER-3000-500-P... .

jsjohnst 7y ago

I bought an 8MB RAM module at wholesale pricing in ~1993 for about $400, so that pricing seems a bit low to me, especially for the time window given.