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Questions tagged [memory]

For questions about computer memory in a retrocomputing context

18 votes
1 answer
1k views

Which computers had features added purely for tax reasons?

I was recently reading about the Amstrad CPC 472, which was a CPC 464 with an extra, unusable 8KB of RAM added to avoid Spanish import fees on computers with 64KB or less. Did any other computers have ...
user3570736's user avatar
  • 1,802
33 votes
6 answers
33k views

Windows 98 with 2GB of RAM

I have assembled a retro-gaming PC out of an old Shuttle SN45G with a Windows 98/Windows XP dual boot. The motherboard can handle 2GB of RAM, but apparently Windows 98 can only handle 1 GiB. Windows ...
Informancien's user avatar
  • 2,657
18 votes
4 answers
2k views

Historical price of ROM

Historical price charts for RAM are quite readily available, e.g. in the mid-seventies a ballpark figure was a penny a byte. What was the price of ROM (assuming you were getting the chips produced in ...
rwallace's user avatar
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10 votes
1 answer
871 views

Why does my Macintosh SE FDHD only see 2 of the 4 megabytes of RAM?

I have a whole bag of 30pin SIMMS so I thought I would see about upgrading the 1 MB of RAM in my Mac SE FDHD to 4 MB. The original RAM had four sticks of OKI M41256A. These SIMMs have 8 chips each. ...
cbmeeks's user avatar
  • 8,601
19 votes
12 answers
6k views

Did early assembly games use hardcoded memory locations?

In the era of C64, Apple][ GS, and SNES, did the games use hardcoded memory locations, or did they let the assembler help them (like modern assemblers)? If yes, how did they manage the memory?
Ignis Incendio's user avatar
19 votes
5 answers
953 views

Did any computers use automatically-operated mechanical storage as electronically-read-addressable memory

From what I understand of ENIAC, it had a very large number of manually-operated rotary switches which behaved as ROM. While programming ENIAC in the early days required a plugboard, the machine was ...
supercat's user avatar
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10 votes
1 answer
1k views

How to identify size of a 30 pin SIMM (Atari 1040 STe)

I have recently acquired an Atari 1040 STe with 1MB of RAM. I read that you can extend its RAM with 30 pin SIMM up to 4MB. But it can be done only with 256KB or 1MB SIMM, and that 2MB, 4MB, 8MB and ...
Informancien's user avatar
  • 2,657
11 votes
3 answers
2k views

Why are the PPU registers on the NES mirrored?

[Please see answers to this related question as well] The NES Picture Processing Unit has eight memory-mapped registers to the CPU in registers $2000 to $2007. The are incompletely decoded, so they ...
JAL's user avatar
  • 9,620
4 votes
4 answers
817 views

Where are the memory controllers for IBM 5150 or Altair 8800?

Wikipedia page for memory controller states that memory controllers are either part of the northbridge, or in more recent cases, integrated into the processor. But AFAIK, neither IBM 5150 nor Altair ...
Utku's user avatar
  • 141
1 vote
1 answer
195 views

Memory timings for a 430VX mainboard

I'm trying to troubleshoot a memory-detection problem on an old Pentium MMX system with a 430VX chipset. I've got the following memory timing options in the BIOS: DRAM Precharge Wait State: 0, 1 ...
Mark's user avatar
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