4 ms·

I worked this way for years in the 80s, when my main platform was the Atari ST. I had a whopping 4MB of RAM and would load the OS from a floppy disk into RAM, a

I worked this way for years in the 80s, when my main platform was the Atari ST. I had a whopping 4MB of RAM and would load the OS from a floppy disk into RAM, after which it would create a decent sized RAM drive that I would periodically save my work to. Compiling and running programs was nearly instantaneous, and everything ran smoothly and silently (the ST didn't even have a fan). At the end of my session, I would save whatever I wanted to keep to disk before shutting down. I never even bothered to buy a hard drive, it was such a pleasant experience. Moving on to other operating systems was an abrupt shock when the time came, leaving me somewhat nostalgic for those days. I still prefer local storage, though, without a forced dependency on the cloud.

OldSchool 14y ago
4MB of RAM in the 80's! Nice to have you aboard Mr. Jackalope Rockefeller.
- acqq 14y ago
  Yes, 4 MB was really a lot in 1990, so I guess his eighties were near to the end of them: http://www.jasondunn.com/remember-computers-from-the-1990s-384 http://www.jasondunn.com/remember-computers-from-the-1990s-3... I'd still like to know how much he paid for 4 MB then, he must remember that, it wasn't a little.
- Samuel_Michon 14y ago
  The Atari 520 STe and 1040 STe had four RAM slots. 4MB was doable, using four modules. The developer version (4160 STe) came with 4MB RAM preinstalled. [1] [2] I can't find a price list for those models, but Atari sold 4MB memory upgrades for its ATW800 workstations at GBP 1450 [3]. [1] http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=24&st=1 http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=24&st... [2] http://info-coach.fr/atari/hardware/memory.php http://info-coach.fr/atari/hardware/memory.php [3] http://atw800.complicated.net/pricelist.html http://atw800.complicated.net/pricelist.html
opminion 14y ago
The Amstrad CPC 6128 had an 8-bit Z80 CPU and would only access the first 64KB of 128KB of RAM, even when restarting. Somebody had the idea of using the second 64KB as RAM disk to story an exact copy of the main RAM, which would survive a CPU crash, which made it great for development. To this day I do not know why they put 128KB on a machine with an OS designed for the older 64KB models. I suspect it had to to with legal reasons (lower taxes for higher memory models?). The fact that it also ran a rather dated CP/M might also have been a factor.
- drzaiusapelord 14y ago
  The 80s were a crazy time. Hardware was dropping in price in a way no one expected. I remember reading an interview with Nolan Bushnell about the Atari 2600. He said by the time it launched, RAM prices fell by 80%. They could have put in tons more RAM, but during the design phase no one saw it coming, so they designed with expensive RAM in mind. He also complained about his parent company's hesitation to see newer models of Atari 2600s with newer equipment. I guess they thought of it like an appliance. You make one, it lasts 10 years, and you buy a new one when it dies, like a washing machine. The ultra-fast pace of technology threw a lot of old world business ideas out the window. I suspect that Amstrad was in the opposite situation. The hardware got so cheap so fast, the software guys couldn't keep up.

OldSchool 14y ago

4MB of RAM in the 80's! Nice to have you aboard Mr. Jackalope Rockefeller.

acqq 14y ago
Yes, 4 MB was really a lot in 1990, so I guess his eighties were near to the end of them: http://www.jasondunn.com/remember-computers-from-the-1990s-384 http://www.jasondunn.com/remember-computers-from-the-1990s-3... I'd still like to know how much he paid for 4 MB then, he must remember that, it wasn't a little.
Samuel_Michon 14y ago
The Atari 520 STe and 1040 STe had four RAM slots. 4MB was doable, using four modules. The developer version (4160 STe) came with 4MB RAM preinstalled. [1] [2] I can't find a price list for those models, but Atari sold 4MB memory upgrades for its ATW800 workstations at GBP 1450 [3]. [1] http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=24&st=1 http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=24&st... [2] http://info-coach.fr/atari/hardware/memory.php http://info-coach.fr/atari/hardware/memory.php [3] http://atw800.complicated.net/pricelist.html http://atw800.complicated.net/pricelist.html

opminion 14y ago

The Amstrad CPC 6128 had an 8-bit Z80 CPU and would only access the first 64KB of 128KB of RAM, even when restarting. Somebody had the idea of using the second 64KB as RAM disk to story an exact copy of the main RAM, which would survive a CPU crash, which made it great for development. To this day I do not know why they put 128KB on a machine with an OS designed for the older 64KB models. I suspect it had to to with legal reasons (lower taxes for higher memory models?). The fact that it also ran a rather dated CP/M might also have been a factor.

drzaiusapelord 14y ago
The 80s were a crazy time. Hardware was dropping in price in a way no one expected. I remember reading an interview with Nolan Bushnell about the Atari 2600. He said by the time it launched, RAM prices fell by 80%. They could have put in tons more RAM, but during the design phase no one saw it coming, so they designed with expensive RAM in mind. He also complained about his parent company's hesitation to see newer models of Atari 2600s with newer equipment. I guess they thought of it like an appliance. You make one, it lasts 10 years, and you buy a new one when it dies, like a washing machine. The ultra-fast pace of technology threw a lot of old world business ideas out the window. I suspect that Amstrad was in the opposite situation. The hardware got so cheap so fast, the software guys couldn't keep up.