Computing from 1976

[dwight]

One thing that is starting to hurt with larger use of memory is the ability to access and load such large blocks of memory.

I'm not saying that access speed haven't gone up but we are quickly reaching a wall, similar to the 4gig clock speed wall for the processors. Throwing more cache layers is of decreasing value. There are things that can be done but are not likely in the near future.

Dwight


________________________________
From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> on behalf of Peter Corlett via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Sunday, December 31, 2017 5:30:21 AM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: Computing from 1976

On Sat, Dec 30, 2017 at 05:43:34PM -0800, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
> On Sat, 30 Dec 2017, ben via cctalk wrote:
>> I find I want use computers less , 5+ minutes to boot something that then
>> needs to check the net. I use a all valve audio system and tubes are warmed
>> up and ready to go before my music app exits the splash screen.
> The "modern" computer is much faster, but it takes forever and a half before
> it is ready to use that speed.

I reckon if I did a side-by-side cold boot of ye olde Amiga 1000 into Workbench
to launch memacs versus firing up my Mac laptop and launching Emacs.app,
there'd be not much in it.

I also very rarely reboot my laptop. Close the lid, and it goes to sleep. Open
the lid -- and perhaps wait 5-10s if it had been asleep for long enough that it
decided to suspend-to-disk and needed to pull the memory image back in -- and
it's ready to continue where I left off.

> Why did anybody ever need more than 64K?

There's no *need*, just like there's no *need* for computers at all.

But since we have computers with multiple gigabytes of RAM, it makes little
sense to restrain one's use of them to a fraction of the capabilities, except
as an intellectual exercise.