On Mar 6, 4:24=A0am, ken...@cix.compulink.co.uk wrote:
> In article
> ,
>
> earlcolby.pottin...@sympatico.ca (Earl_Colby_Pottinger) wrote:
> > The original Atari STs, also did not have a memory expansion (it was a
> > ROM slot for rams with no 'WRITE line) which also limited which
> > markets it could enter.
>
> =A0By the time I bought an ST it was possible to expand the memory just b=
y
> plugging in more. The limitation IIRC was only four slots all of which
> had to have the same size sim. Again IIRC I expanded my ST to 1Mb as I
> could not afford to replace the existing memory.
>
> =A0Of course having the OS in ROM helped in getting usable memory compare=
d
> to the PC and the memory map was a lot cleaner.
But that is the point. When was that? What did IBM type PCs ship
with in that time frame?
The ST and other non-IBM type PCs did not ship with that ease of
memory expansion in 1984-5.
A telling point is that Apple Macs later did become easier to get with
lots more memory when bought and still more memory could be added if
needed by just plugging it in. Apple is still in business today, the
others as computer companies do not.
Amigas, Ataris, Acorns and others however did not come from the
factory like that and too often you needed to buy extra hardware to
expand the memory.
Almost all these computers had better designs than PCs in all ways but
one, you could not EASYLY surpass the memory of shipping IBM type PCs
at the same time frame.
The Hack to get the Amiga 1000 to expand to 2.75 MB required less than
$5.00 in chips.
The Hack to turn the ROM port of the original Atari ST to support ram,
was just rewiring *THREE* signal lines. I think it supportted adding
additional four(4) MBs to the machine.
The idea that a machine could have been designed in 1984-5 to directly
support (note: not ship with) 4-8 MBs of ram is not that hard, it is
just that most designer/computer companies did not think most home/
small business users would even want/use that much memory. That is
very funny once you consider Amiga's multi-tasking meant you could
always use that extra memory for more programs, and that Apple's
graphics programs never seemed to have enough memory for it's users'
demands (The more they did, the more they wanted). Even on the ST
once you wanted to do DTP, RayTracing or even complex music scoring
you would want more than just 1 MB.
I think a machine with the best of the Amiga/Atari/Acorn/Mac (who did
I leave out?) that could support up to four(4) in the base design (no
extra support hardware needed to be purchased) would blow away the IBM
type PCs from the home and small business market. The fortune 10000
would always be owned by IBM if only because of their support
contracts and integration services. |
