This question is more of a historical question then a practical one. When I say Supercomputer, I'm thinking of a computer such as the Cray's that may have had a 486 or equivalent CPU and supporting 1GB of ram. As far as I can remember a 486 level desktop was never produced that supported 1GB of ram. I'm looking for any remote proof of a 486 level machine with 1GB of ram including a link to a page, flyer, article to back it up.
2006-12-04 06:17:57 · 2 answers · asked by rlucas7298 2 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Other - Hardware
The 80486 chip had a 32bit address bus so it could theoretically support up to 4GB of RAM.
Although the hardware could theoretically support upto 4GB RAM the operating systems of the time couldn't use it, DOS, WIN 3.11, Novell Netware etc.. all had small memory models. There is a remote possibility that there could have been an intel port of BSD Unix that could handle this amount of RAM.
The highest spec server I can recall from around that time was a Compaq Proliant 4000 series 486 server, however I think the maximum RAM supported was 512MB and would have been hideously expensive.
A lot of super workstations / servers of that era relied on SPARC / HP 9000 RISC / APLHA technology rather than being Intel based. Intel machines tended to be confined to the desktop and fileserving to desktop PCs in offices / classrooms.
2006-12-04 06:36:37 · answer #1 · answered by Mike 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Athough a 486 machine could logically support 1GB of RAM, the most I knew ever assembed was inside the Intel research facilities where they were testing 486 machines with 100MB of RAM in the early to mid 1990's.
I'm not aware of anyone ever building a 486 array with 1GB of RAM.
There were 486 server farms with a combined 1GB of RAM, but never a single motherboad at that time.
2006-12-04 06:24:39 · answer #2 · answered by bird_brain_88 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋