 JeffBPremium
join:2001-12-20
Somewhere | Whatever, Bill And we'll never need more than 640k of memory either  |
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davePremium,MVM
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio
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| said by JeffB:
And we'll never need more than 640k of memory either
You understand that Microsoft talked that figure up from the 512K proposed by IBM, don't you?
The physical address space of the IBM PC was 20 bits. IBM proposed that the lower half be given to software and the upper half be given to IO devices. Microsoft haggled a little.
Also, since Microsoft doesn't build chips, it's difficult to see how it could be there fault that the address bus was only 20 bits wide.
Yeah, you can probably find some silly statement by Gates defending the number he was stuck with. That's marketing.
On the other hand, while Gates was sounding off about 640KB on single-user PCs, I was probably using timesharing systems with a half-a-megabyte of physical memory (intended to support 20 or 30 users) and a 64KB virtual address space. So Gates didn't seem like he was really limiting himself there. And who the hell could afford 640KB of memory for one person, anyway?
You can find plenty of statements by smart people about having more computing resources than they'll ever need. That's been pretty much constant for the last 50 years. |
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 herdfanPremium
join:2003-01-25
Hurricane, WV | said by dave:
You can find plenty of statements by smart people about having more computing resources than they'll ever need. That's been pretty much constant for the last 50 years.
Your right. Remember the statement by the CEO of Digital Equipment in 1977 who said there was no reason a person would ever need a computer in their house.
And the one by some IBM guy in 1943? that said 4 computers in the world was enough.
Remember Microsoft is only a monopoly because we are too lazy to learn another system. |
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davePremium,MVM
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio
kudos:7 Reviews:
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·Verizon Online DSL
| said by herdfan:
And the one by some IBM guy in 1943? that said 4 computers in the world was enough.
That wasn't just 'some IBM guy', that was Thomas J. Watson, the Bill Gates of his generation. And I think the point he was making was that IBM wasn't going to be making much money out of computers.
(The exact number varies according to source: 3, 4, 5). |
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