The Computer Chronicles - Memory Problems (1994)

[@lowellmccormick6991]

Dual boot machine with Win 3.11 & DOS 6.2 running Acad R12 on 486-66. That was my world. Autoexec.bat, cfig.exe, cfigpharlap (or something like that), memory management. Then went to WinNT, Acad R14 and the world turned into colo (figuratively). Deskstops evolved into workstations and I don't even remember what the stats of my latest are. It's fast with expensive video card, lots of memory on video and MB. Rotates 3d dwgs like it's an object in your hand, even if it's a very large project. It's been a great career and fun to live thru this part of history. Thank you Robert Noyce.

[@gblargg]

It's amazing that people were still dealing with such arcane memory issues in 1994.

[@chaoticsystem2211]

i spent around 1000 bucks for 16mb in around that time ^^

[@seanlookalike]

Just love these old programmes

[@allentoyokawa9068]

PROGRAM***

[@daehawk9585]

I used to get 612 to 618 just editing my files and loading high. I really had nothing loading much because all I did was game. That Mad Mouse store segment was awesome. First look on the shelf behind the guy and you'll spot the original System Shock. Then the customer is playing Wing Commander 3! And if I'm not mistaken that's a Thrust master joystick. Lastly on his PC when they use Game Doctor you can see Doom lol. 1994 was such an amazing year.

[@oo0Spyder0oo]

I'm sure I managed 632kb, when I last used dos 6.2. Running Win 3.11 with a whole 1mb ram on a 286 as well, they were fun days. Always looking to squeeze a bit more mem here and there. Then cdrom drivers took a big bite of that himem, never mind the convoluted string you needed to load the driver in.

[@JJVernig]

@@oo0Spyder0oo I remember that too. But if I remember correct, you could use a tool like Quarterdeck Qemm386, and that would reboot the system a few times and set all the parameters correctly.

[@oo0Spyder0oo]

@@JJVernig That's right, I know it had that feature, probably why it was so highly pirated! But Dos 6.2 really did a great job of this in the end.

[@telljuliet1]

Just realised that they are trying to get 640kb of memory and here we are, with my phone having 24,000 times more memory than these big PCs, and the dev pc at my desk which has about 120,000 times more ram in it.

[@Not-TheOne]

@4:04, I miss those big ass books, I know its much easier to find information these days, I like that, but sometimes when I was bored, I would randomly page through a manual and you'll pick up a bunch of information you didnt know about or could possibly use later.

[@plushcrochet8719]

Back in 1994: Memory Problems Now in 2020: RGB Memory Problems

[@raven4k998]

do you have memory problems if so you need more ram lol careful the RGB does not overheat your ram that can be a bitch now that manufacturers are starting to put enough leds on parts to cause heat related problems

[@mawardiramli]

1994: MEM Maker 2022: meme maker

[@larsfladmark2482]

What's next? Terabyte memory?

[@MannyDer]

30 years later and I've got 16gb in one and 48gb of ram in another pc. I hope to see whats what in the next 30 years

[@Maskddingo]

LOL I remember having to run mem-maker before I could launch some games back in the day. I also toyed with the selective boot via bootdisks with custom DOS configs just to get some games to run on my cheap system. Very nostalgic.

[@raven4k998]

I still wish my parents had bothered to teach me about and how qbasic worked on our first computer cause now i missed out on that cause I didn't know what it was back then or I could have had some fun with it making my own games back then wa wa waaaa

[@elgeneralxx]

Did every white guy in the 90s look like roy mcdonald??

[@raven4k998]

yeah pretty much that was just how it was back then

[@perfectionbox]

Didn't they have 386s and 486s with flat 32-bit memory space by 1994?

[@JJVernig]

Yep, but the OS (DOS) didn't support it. The processor was booted in real-mode, which meant about 1 meg of ram.

[@perfectionbox]

@@JJVernig What about DOS/4G?

[@DataWaveTaGo]

OMG, it's Oct. 2017 and only 2,458 views! At this rate it will hit 1 million views in just over 1,600 years.

[@danwat1234]

There is another video of the same episode here with 21K views so far; kzbin.info/www/bejne/j6mwXqZ-h6-baac

[@raven4k998]

lol it's not a race kid

[@8BitNaptime]

I want Curt's sweater.

[@Maskddingo]

The Mac app shown is intereesting. It's like os-level garbage collecction.

[@raven4k998]

wait till the day comes when someone makes a virus that reprograms windows to only see and use 640 k of ram regardless of how much your system has that would be a hell of a virus can you imagine?

[@DataWaveTaGo]

Hmmm ... now in 1977 children, I had to wire wrap my first computer onto several perf-boards to build an own-design 2MHz 8080 machine with 8K RAM. I then upgraded to my own-design 4MHz Z80 system and did some benchmark tests. It performed faster than a Micro Data 1600 system that could cost around $60,000.00 (With terminal & printer).

[@raven4k998]

hmm that sounds totally legit man totally legit

[@chaoticsystem2211]

not anymore

[@SmartK8]

Et voilà! You have 100 kilobytes...

[@tourmaline07]

Not sure I find that Connectix explanation satisfactory although he is correct - it looks like "total memory" is including a swap file , where built in memory is what it says it is , so in a program black part of the bar is the part in RAM , where the white bar is that in paging ;) totally taken for granted these days that an OS would be able to correctly sort this out - memory management has come a long way. Written this on a Windows 10 PC which successfully juggles 32GB of DDR4 , my first PC had 128MB of SDRAM

[@straightpipediesel]

No, he is basically right. Classic 68k MacOS memory management was pretty much unchanged from 1984 and was extremely primitive. Unlike 32-bit 386+ Intel systems, there was no concept of virtual addresses. Applications had to be allocated all their memory they could ever use when they started up. That was the white bar. The memory also had to be contiguous, so programs were given a single to work with. RAM Doubler was a soft-paging system that allowed modern VM features like dynamic allocation, it was pretty impressive that Connectix managed to do what Apple never did. The PowerPC later introduced some of these features via a microkernel that sat under MacOS, but because many parts of the OS had to be 68k-compatible, it still was awful.

[@tourmaline07]

@@straightpipedieselThanks for the explanation on this - I've seen some dubious "softram" software in that time and I thought this might be another one like that.

[@BAZFANSHOTHITSClassicTunes]

How the shit can you write a book that big and thick about memory management.

[@danwood_uk]

I’m so glad I used an Amiga back then and didn’t have to deal with all this hassle.

[@gregorymalchuk272]

It's honestly pathetic that DOS was totally incapable of managing memory. And that people were dealing with this in 1994, and probably even later given low end users still using Windows 3.1

[@oldtwinsna8347]

As I recall, there was a major problem with chip memory since this was the only memory area accessible to the video chip. Also the AmigaOS did not support memory management so the entire OS hosed easily to the point that reboots were commonly needed.

[@NathanChisholm041]

Just stick 32GB in and things will be fine:-)

[@amtwebview]

Let's go 256GiB.

[@zg-it]

The good old days, when you would install a memory hogging program in order to solve your memory issues.

[@timcat1004]

Watching this in 2020. I have 64 Gig of ram. lol

[@raven4k998]

could you imagine having to work with only 64 KB of ram instead of gigs lol

[@regu6582]

@@raven4k998 I remember upgrading my 2 megs to 4 megs. Cost a fortune but really boosted my 486 dx2 66

[@raven4k998]

@@regu6582 lol that's all I can say is lol considering my system has 32 gb how the times have a changed since then

[@Sevier7777]

@@regu6582 that's a lot for a 486 I remember having only a few megs with my Pentium 90

[@regu6582]

@@raven4k998 Not really. If I recall you could go as high as 8 meg. Both cost and "real world usage", stopped me at 4 megs. Hell we were still using BBS boards and rudimentary LAN games in the same house.

[@barriewilson3052]

24:25 ULTIMATE FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIILLLLLLLLL

[@kevinhoward9593]

Memory issues now are nonsense. Most computers can use up to 64gb of memory if not more. plenty of memory to get the stuff done. Old people think that everything on your computer is stored on the Memory because when they were younger that's how computers were. everything was stored on a memory bank. they don't understand the concept of a HD.

[@oldtwinsna8347]

Lots and lots of cheap windows 10 tablets sell with 2GB, I even have one from a year ago that is 1GB.. Not enough memory would be an understatement on that 1GB machine as it is totally useless.

[@DataWaveTaGo]

This seems weird & tame & boring to kids today because it was before social media allowed them to post death-threats.

[@raven4k998]

back then Covid 19 would have been treated like the common cold today shit your pants it's the end of the world as we know and we are all going to die social media it's going to give you an early grave from excess fear