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Date:	Tue, 15 Jan 2002 21:52:31 PST7
From:	Peter Skye <pskye@peterskye.com >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: Re: MAX HeadRAM

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J. R. Fox wrote:
>
> He said that massive amounts of RAM could
> actually make the system more sluggish.

This is true for some older chipsets (and maybe some stupid new ones,
too). With those, memory above 256 MB used a slower hardware access
cycle *and* sometimes it wasn't cached, either.

But that's a hardware cause, not a software cause.

> something called the "Heavy Iron" effect. He said that massive
> amounts of RAM could actually make the system more sluggish.

The old mainframes didn't have "chip sets" and the memory management was
handled by the software kernel. Perhaps that's the reason (the term
"Heavy Iron" refers to mainframes, at least in *my* computer
dictionary).

I'm not familiar with the "Heavy Iron" memory slowdown effect which Ron
Higgin discussed but on a /360 model 50 with a memory configuration that
was large for the time your programs could run three to four times
*slower* when the extra memory was plugged in. The reason was pretty
darn simple but the bottom line was "yes, more memory meant you ran
slower".

> I can tell you for sure that the more RAM you have,
> the longer it will take your machine to boot up.

Yup, same here. But it's not a big difference.

- Peter

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