[Info-vax] Graphics cards and monitors, was: Re: VSI Software and Stark Gaming

Johnny Billquist bqt at softjar.se
Wed Aug 12 15:36:36 EDT 2015


On 2015-08-12 13:08, abrsvc wrote:
> 512MB physical memory was a VMS limitation at one time with the VAX 8800 being the first machine to actually have the capability to support that much real memory.  IIRC the 780 was limited to 8 hex-height memory boards.

What? No.
The VAX 8600 definitely supports 512 MB of memory. And VMS, at least 
V7.3 on a VAX, definitely supports 1.25 GB, as I have running proof of 
that here. Exactly what the upper limit is, I'm not sure.

I think that before the NVAX, there was an architectural limit on the 
VAX itself on the amount of physical memory possible. I think that was 
1GB. The 8600 is the machine I know most intimately, and it splits the 
physical address space into two halves, with memory being in one half, 
and all kind of I/O adapters in the other half.

> I recall many support calls for the 8800 suspected of "hanging" due to the time it took to test 512MB which was the default boot sequence.  Turning off the memory test during the boot "solved" the hanging problem...

I guess that got solved somewhere along the way. :-)

	Johnny

-- 
Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                   ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se             ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol



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