Subject: Re: Alpha pci133 Memory
To: Stan Pietkiewicz <stanp@storm.ca>
From: Jason Thorpe <thorpej@nas.nasa.gov>
List: port-alpha
Date: 06/08/1997 21:38:40
On Mon, 09 Jun 1997 00:24:22 -0400 
 Stan Pietkiewicz <stanp@storm.ca> wrote:

 > Now that I've got some time to put this motherboard into a case, add some 
 >  more parts, and call it a computer, a significant question has come up: 
 > Will 16mb of RAM be enough for NetBSD (for a file server), or should I go 
 > for more??

NetBSD/alpha in 16M will be ... well, that's not very much memory.
Personally?  I consider 32M an _absolute_ minimum for a useful system,
and when I'm building kernels on it, it swaps.

 > Yeah, I know, all requirements will grow to fill the available memory 
 > space in no time flat!!!!

Well, remember, you're dealing with a RISC platform; executable code
is big.  Also, the PROM requires some chunk of RAM... 16M isn't going
to leave you with a lot left for data to grow to fill :-)

Jason R. Thorpe                                       thorpej@nas.nasa.gov
NASA Ames Research Center                               Home: 408.866.1912
NAS: M/S 258-6                                          Work: 415.604.0935
Moffett Field, CA 94035                                Pager: 415.428.6939