Trenton State Computer Festival

From: healyzh_at_aracnet.com <(healyzh_at_aracnet.com)>
Date: Mon May 7 15:52:25 2001

> > I thought I was being clever when I bought a cheap DEC 3000/400 (I think)
> > for the RAM, but it turns out the 400 had 60ns RAM, while my 900 required
> > 70ns.
>
> Why would any machine object to RAM that was faster than it needed?
> (assuming the same type of RAM chips, same pinouts on the modules, etc).
> The access time is generally a worst-case anyway, and under some
> circumstances the data will be available sooner that you'd expect. It's
> just that you design the memory controller based on the quoted access
> time, since then you _know_ the data will be valid when you expect it.
>
> -tony

It's not a Computer, but I know for a fact that an HP5MP Laserjet will not
work with 60ns RAM, it wants 70ns RAM (company I bought the RAM from sent
60ns by mistake). It just plain wouldn't recognize the RAM.

OTOH, I've put a PC133 256MB DIMM in a motherboard expecting nothing more
than 128MB PC66 DIMM's and it worked, but only saw 128MB (not surprising,
what was somewhat surprising is that it worked at all).

                                Zane
Received on Mon May 07 2001 - 15:52:25 BST