Re: CISC (ugh!) question

[Evan Harris <auctionitis@xxxxxxxxx>]

I seem to remember having 64M of EMC memory in a B60, but I could not
swear to that; I coul not even say that it was the maximum possible.

If 48M is truly the maximum for a B50 it may be a marketing
restriction as much as a technical one.

48 may not be a power of 2 but 32 and 16 both are....

On Fri, Sep 30, 2011 at 10:27 AM, John McKee <jmmckee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>  A few weeks ago, I saw something on the list about how a modern system (can't recall if the system referred to was a 270 or whatever).  Just remember that "the doctor" described the possible memory expansion for it.  And that expansion was not "official" from IBM as I recall.
>
> Which brought this nagging question to mind.  There is no practical value to any answer - except pure unrelenting curiosity.  I worked with a B50.  It was purchased with 24M of RAM.  Prior to my arrival, a deal was made to swap the genuine IBM memory for 48M of IPL memory.  That system was loaded down beyond belief.
>
> I was told that 48M was the absolute maximum memory that the B50 could address.
>
> This was obviously way before any customer oriented maintenance on a RISC system.
>
> Was 48M the absolute maximum memory that the old beast could support?
>
> My assumption, based on tremendous change in nearly 20 years is that 48M was indeed the maximum.  But, why 48?  Not a power of 2.
>
>
> John McKee
> --