Questions tagged [memory]
For questions about computer memory in a retrocomputing context
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How did early laser printers get by with so little memory?
The first HP Laserjet only had 128K of memory. To print an area of 7.5 by 10 inches at 300 DPI requires 844K if it's kept as a single bitmapped image. Obviously they were doing something clever to ...
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Why is EEPROM called ROM if it can be written to?
Is there a historical reason? Since it is rewritable it isn't read only by definition, so why call it so?
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When did computers stop checking memory on boot?
I remember my old 8088 used to do this (640K OK) but can't remember seeing anything like this since. Does this still happen and it's just not visible? If not, when did it stop, and why? (Imagining ...
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Why did DOS-based Windows require HIMEM.SYS to boot?
My understanding is that all versions of Microsoft Windows that ran on top of DOS — that is, the lineage from Windows 1.0 up to Windows ME, even though the reliance on DOS diminished over time — ...
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Last computer not to use octets / 8-bit bytes
I am old enough to remember computers that were not octet oriented. E.g. the first that I used was an ICL 4120. It had 24 bit words which were, when necessary, divided into four 6-bit characters. ...
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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 ...
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Did DOS zero out the BSS area when it loaded a program?
As an example, say we have a DOS MZ EXE file that's around 20 KiB in size. The EXE header contains the value 0x1400 at offset 0x0A indicating that the program is requesting 5,120 paragraphs (or 80 KiB)...
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How can you run a program that is bigger than RAM?
Suppose you have a program that is 218 words long. However you are using a 16 bit machine and have 216 words of RAM. (The RAM is directly addressed by the CPU). On the other hand, you have unlimited '...
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How did the X-Men game for Sega Genesis have its state survive a console reset?
The Sega Genesis system had a rather interesting game. X-Men (1993) was based on the popular cartoon version of the comic book series. But it had what was still one of the most unique (and unintuitive)...
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Why did Nintendo 64 (1996) memory cards require a battery inside them to retain data whereas the PlayStation (1994) ones did not?
The Nintendo 64 was released in 1996. Its "Controller Pak"s, which was the name of the memory card that you put inside the controller to save the progress in certain games, require a battery ...
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Did anyone ever run out of stack space on the 6502?
Unlike its main rival the Z80, the 6502 had a size limit of 256 bytes for the hardware stack. That sounds like a very tight limit, but in my experience, it was never actually an issue; by the time you ...
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Why was it common to reference memory locations using negative numbers on some BASICs?
If you had an Apple II, it was common in BASIC to reference memory locations above the 32K point by using a negative number. For example, if you wanted to click the speaker you would PEEK/POKE -16336 ...
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How does the Gameboy's memory bank switching work?
I'm writing a Game Boy emulator, but I don't completely understand how its memory mapping works. Here is what I (think) I know (and don't know).
The CPU can address up to 0x10000 memory locations ...
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What is a dropfile?
After reading Charles Duffy's comment on Was there a clearly identifiable "first computer" to use or demonstrate the use of virtual memory?:
I had a computer science professor around 1999 ...
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Core Memory Stability
How reliable was the ferrite ring core memory system? When the power went off, did all the magnetic positions of the iron rings in the program wire grid remain exactly as they were?
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