$10 to double the main system ram sounds good to me. The Foenix is a premium 65816 system, it might as well go premium on the RAM. Four megs is not so much that it would ruin the target genre.
I'd rather see a full 4 MB of system RAM. My experience with the Apple IIGS was that people always end up using more RAM than you expect. Apple originally shipped it with only 256KB of RAM (really 128 KB, as the other 128KB was "slow memory" (clocked at only 1.023 MHz) for video and Apple //e-compatibility) but almost immediately (like within 2 or 3 months) started bundling it with a 256 KB RAM expansion card because that turned out not to be enough. By the time they finished the first real operating system (GS/OS 2.0 on System Disk 4.0) it required 512 MB to run. A year later System 5 required 1 MB (and they released the ROM 3 motherboard, officially known as "Apple IIgs (1 Megabyte)" because it had 1 MB (plus the 128KB of slow RAM) on the motherboard. But that was just the bare minimum to run the OS… most applications required more. (And that was before you started adding in device drivers and desk accessories and other memory-resident software.) System 6 could sort of almost fit into 1.25 MB of RAM but to actually run almost anything you needed 2 MB (preferably more).If anyone wants to run anything resembling a real operating system (especially with any kind of multitasking) then 4 MB would be a most welcome upgrade. (If I find time I'd like to do a partial port of GS/OS and pieces of the IIGS Toolbox … specifically the Memory Manager, the System Loader, the Text Tools, the application-level GS/OS system calls, and whatever else is needed to be able to run text-based programs generated by the ORCA/C compiler. Although it may be necessary to modify the compiler as the code it generates expects GS/OS and Toolbox entry points to be located in bank $E1, which is right in the middle of Vicky's VRAM on the Foenix.)
The Counter argument is, and I am playing the devil's advocate here, that I am not sure there is really a necessity for it.I agree that the Foenix is a premium device, a high-end platform for the genre, no doubt about it but amongst the first thing people complain is always about the cost of the unit. So I have been trying to limit the cost of the unit and this is one of those choices that could save some cost.
Now, if you are going to pay $300US for a unit like I mentioned in the video and having 4M instead of 2M for $310,00, then what's the deal right? You all realize that there is already $30.00USD spent on the memory, which is 10% of the overall cost. I mean, mind you with volume things will probably go down. But the main aspect of this that I have been fighting with myself about is the fact that since the Video and/or Graphic info would be stored in Vicky's 4M bank, then what's left is really about Code and Music data I guess. Moreover, since the SDCard interface has a 1.5Mbytes/Second throughput then, it doesn't take much time to actually get the data you need. In theory you could ultimately read the Music file from the SDCard and feed Beatrix with very little buffer. So, the question that remains is... Will there be an application or somebody who will write 2Mbytes worth of Assembly Code? Unless, there could be compiled application...Hum...
I'm not looking to multitask this machine.
Dan
I'd rather see a full 4 MB of system RAM. My experience with the Apple IIGS was that people always end up using more RAM than you expect. Apple originally shipped it with only 256KB of RAM (really 128 KB, as the other 128KB was "slow memory" (clocked at only 1.023 MHz) for video and Apple //e-compatibility) but almost immediately (like within 2 or 3 months) started bundling it with a 256 KB RAM expansion card because that turned out not to be enough. By the time they finished the first real operating system (GS/OS 2.0 on System Disk 4.0) it required 512 MB to run. A year later System 5 required 1 MB (and they released the ROM 3 motherboard, officially known as "Apple IIgs (1 Megabyte)" because it had 1 MB (plus the 128KB of slow RAM) on the motherboard. But that was just the bare minimum to run the OS… most applications required more. (And that was before you started adding in device drivers and desk accessories and other memory-resident software.) System 6 could sort of almost fit into 1.25 MB of RAM but to actually run almost anything you needed 2 MB (preferably more). If anyone wants to run anything resembling a real operating system (especially with any kind of multitasking) then 4 MB would be a most welcome upgrade. (If I find time I'd like to do a partial port of GS/OS and pieces of the IIGS Toolbox … specifically the Memory Manager, the System Loader, the Text Tools, the application-level GS/OS system calls, and whatever else is needed to be able to run text-based programs generated by the ORCA/C compiler. Although it may be necessary to modify the compiler as the code it generates expects GS/OS and Toolbox entry points to be located in bank $E1, which is right in the middle of Vicky's VRAM on the Foenix.)
The Counter argument is, and I am playing the devil's advocate here, that I am not sure there is really a necessity for it. I agree that the Foenix is a premium device, a high-end platform for the genre, no doubt about it but amongst the first thing people complain is always about the cost of the unit. So I have been trying to limit the cost of the unit and this is one of those choices that could save some cost.
Now, if you are going to pay $300US for a unit like I mentioned in the video and having 4M instead of 2M for $310,00, then what's the deal right? You all realize that there is already $30.00USD spent on the memory, which is 10% of the overall cost. I mean, mind you with volume things will probably go down. But the main aspect of this that I have been fighting with myself about is the fact that since the Video and/or Graphic info would be stored in Vicky's 4M bank, then what's left is really about Code and Music data I guess. Moreover, since the SDCard interface has a 1.5Mbytes/Second throughput then, it doesn't take much time to actually get the data you need. In theory you could ultimately read the Music file from the SDCard and feed Beatrix with very little buffer. So, the question that remains is... Will there be an application or somebody who will write 2Mbytes worth of Assembly Code? Unless, there could be compiled application... Hum...
Alright, just my 2 Cents.
Cheers!
Stefany
I agree that $10 more is not a big deal .Will I ever use it all? Maybe.
Dan