21 Jan
2023
21 Jan
'23
1:58 p.m.
On 01/21/2023 2:55 PM CST Fred Cisin via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
The first 5150 was available with one row of 16K RAM,
you could plug
whatever you had (such as from Godbout) into the other 3 rows, and almost
anything was cheaper than IBM's prices.
I think that the early 5160 also used 16K RAM, but I don't know if you
could buy one without all 4 rows populated.
Then 5160 was available that could use 64K RAM chips, and/or, with a
trivial mod could use two rows of 256K chips, plus two rows of 64K chips.
Anybody remember the full details?
That all sounds correct. In addition, I seem to recall there were some even later 5160s
that came from the factory with the 640K "mod." I just opened the 5160 I have to
look at it. It's crammed full of boards that I didn't want to pull, but I could
see it has four rows of what look like 64K chips. The board is marked "64 / 256K
" and it has some RAM on at least one of the plug-in boards.
I really should sell this monster before I get too old to lift it.
Will