Re: Crosspost: Did the cpu influence the display?

[stephensheppard@hotmail.com]

Michael J. Mahon wrote:
> stephensheppard@hotmail.com wrote:
> > Bill Vermillion wrote:
> > > In article <c7%rf.10054$7S.5344@tornado.rdc-kc.rr.com>,
> > > Bill Plenge <B_Plenge@NoSpam.com> wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
> > > >Given that time period I think you'll find the major reason being
> > > >the cost of RAM (circa '78 16K was about $80, by '82 64K-128K
> > > >could be had for the same price) and color monitors at the time.
> > >
> > > You are low on the RAM price.  4116 RAM was going for $200
> > > at the local electronics wholesalers.  I know - I priced it for my
> > > machine.  That was mid-1978, as I had gotten my system at the end
> > > of 1977.
> > >
> >
> > Wow, $200 in 1978!  Something big must have happened in the next year
> > or so.  I paid $18 for eight 4116's in 1979/80.
> >
> > They were used to upgrade my Atari 800 8K RAM module from 8K to 16K.
> > Doesn't sound like much of an upgrade but I only had 24K total at the
> > time and Atari 16K modules were $180+  retail.
> >
> > - Steve Sheppard
>
> In January, 1981, California Digital (a component discounter) was
> selling eight 200ns 4116's for $30, and that was a considerable
> reduction from the "standard" price of about $75 and the Apple price
> of $150 for the same set of eight DRAMs.  I bought 2 sets.
>
> The price of DRAMs was pretty volatile then, as now.  A week after
> I placed my order, the price of a set of eight went up to $40.
>
> Of course, the general trend (averaged over a year or so) has always
> been strongly downward--until the chip type became obsolete for new
> designs.  A typical slope is that the price halved every year.
>
> It would have been very difficult to find 4116s for $18 per set of
> eight any earlier than mid-1981.
>
> -michael
>
> Apple II parallel computing!
> http://members.aol.com/mjmahon

You are absolutely right.  After thinking about it a bit I decided that
prices dropping from $200 down to $18 could not have happened in just
two short years (nevermind less).

I dug out my old A.N.A.L.O.G issues (later Analog Computing) to find
the article I used for reference for my memory upgrade. I had two
surprises 1) The first issue was published in 1981 not in 1980 as I had
thought and 2) the article to which I just mentioned did not appear
until issue 6, published mid-1982.

Even then I did purchase the 4116s at half the price I expected to pay.
(ELI Electronics of Cambridge MA was quite a place for electronics, new
and surplus, at basically wholesale cost).

I appologize to one and all for my faulty claim.  The actual date was
mid/late 1982.

Steve Sheppard