On 2014-10-14, 8:15 PM, Ed Vance -> Alan Zisman wrote:   
      
    EV>> Not too long ago I saw a article that said Bill Gates denied saying   
    EV>> those words.   
      
    AZ>> Whether BG said that or not, let's put it in context - at the   
    AZ>> time the IBM PC was released - with 64kb RAM as the default, I   
      
    EV> Yep!, a lot of folks had 256KB or even 512KB of RAM.   
    EV> I'd have to look for some of the old catalogs I used to get to see   
    EV> how much Money 64KB or 128KB RAM modules costs back then.   
      
      
   Back then, RAM was sold in individual chips - a row of 8 (or 9 when   
   error-checking parity was enabled) were needed. Installation was a pain - it   
   was easy to accidentally bend one of the pins on a chip when pressing it into   
   the socket, and identifying which of the chips was mid-installed could require   
   pulling them all out and resetting them.   
      
   On my 286 system - which could access memory above 1024kb using the 'expanded   
   memory' protocol (only supported by a few applications), I added an Intel   
   Aboveboard, which let me add an additional 2 MB of expanded memory by plugging   
   in (I think) 64 individual RAM chips.   
      
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