Subj : FreeBSD 4.3-RC buffer is
To   : Charles Angelich
From : Lawrence Garvin
Date : Sun Apr 22 2001 01:34 pm

Charles wrote to Tobias at 13:52 17 Apr:

 CA> Many 386 max out at 8megs, no option in hardware for more than 
 CA> that. Many distributed OS of the *nix variety can only be 
 CA> installed on 8meg machines. All 386 were not maxed out at the time 
 CA> of purchase (there are many 4meg 386s out there). I recall that 
 CA> AT&T had 32meg machines for sale but those are not common and 
 CA> extremely proprietary as I remember them? Older memory chips are 
 CA> not truly available if you're not in a group of ha
 CA> rdware techs. Many say they have boxes full of them - I have yet 
 CA> to see these boxes? 

Charles.. most 386 systemboards came with 4 30-pin SIMM slots (or better). With 
4MBx9 memory chips, one can put 16MB on a 386 easily. Only those systems with 
only 2 slots would be deficient.

I have a Gateway 386 (DX20) and an AMD 386 (DX40) and both boards have 4 SIMM 
slots on them.

 CA> The other problem that is overlooked is that at one time a 500meg 
 CA> hard drive was all that DOS could use and most were engineered for 
 CA> DOS use. 

Thus my comments earlier this week about BIOS issues.. though there are 
suggestions that with non-DOS systems, what the BIOS does or does not see is 
irrelevant.

 CA> On older PS/2's you find 35meg drives on 386s and the PS/2 drive 
 CA> not using a ribbon cable and having MCA slots makes upgrading 
 CA> dicey. 

Well.. honestly.. I'd say take that PS/2 MCA machine... put a second NIC in it, 
strip the hard drive.. and use it to run GnatBox Lite as a firewall. :-)

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 * Origin: lawrence@eforest.net | The Enchanted Forest (1:106/6018)

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