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From: krowitz@mit-richter.UUCP.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: Re:  What to do with DN300's
Message-ID: <8711251837.AA29051@EDDIE.MIT.EDU>
Date: Wed, 25-Nov-87 12:23:00 EST
Article-I.D.: EDDIE.8711251837.AA29051
Posted: Wed Nov 25 12:23:00 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Nov-87 04:28:21 EST
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Distribution: world
Organization: The ARPA Internet
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Don't hold your breath ... we've been wanting to get more than
3 MB of memory on our existing DN330's since the day we got them
(only a few months before the DN3000 was announced). You would
figure that if they could put 2MB plus the entire CPU on one
board, that the memory expansion board could handle at least
another 2MB. We even heard that a part number had been assigned
to larger memory boards for the DN330, but no such board seems
to exists. Since the minimum memory requirement is going to
grow when SR10 comes out, this is a major concern to us.
The problem seems to be one of volume production -- Apollo
can turn out DN3000's in large numbers very cheaply. The
demand for DN3xx upgrades is smaller, and the production costs
for small runs is high. In addition, a 20 or 25Mhz CPU would
require a completely new memory design and/or a cache. The
existing memory systems can't keep up with the 68020 at speeds
past 16Mhz. This is why the DN5xx-Turbos require the memory
system upgrades and why the DN4000 comes with an 8Kb cache
built into it.


 -- David Krowitz

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