Hi,

The 1gb per processor is dead wrong.  The "right" answer for how much
memory you should buy is "how much can you afford".  There is currently
almost no point of diminishing returns on memory (except for some very
unusual edge cases), although this may change with 6.5 as more memory
becomes available (up to 16gb).

Many times people have used convoluted rules-of-thumb to answer this
question.  Largely these are a waste of time, especially since memory is so
cheap (ain't competition a wonderful thing???).

Bottom line is buy as much as you can afford and don't spend a lot of time
trying to justify it, if you can help it.

BTW, additional memory often helps online transaction performance but very
often dramatically improves read-oriented serial batch performance .

HTH,

Bill Lancaster
Lancaster Consulting

At 03:32 PM 3/22/00, Sletten Kenneth W KPWA wrote:
>After Mark asked:
>
> > Is it at all possible we're talking 4GB of *LDEV1* here,
> > instead of 4GB of RAM?
>
>Chuck replied with:
>
> > Nope, the formula is for RAM.
> >
> > OS and network processes - 128 mb
> > 5 mb per user
> > 20 mb per batch job limit
> > ratio of 1% memory to total disk
> > 1 gb memory per processor
>
>The first four sound O.K., but the "1 gb memory per processor"
>has to be wrong....  I *know* you can run a 9X9 multi-processor
>box with no problem with a lot less than that....
>
> > And adds that a minimum for 6.5 is 4gb
>
>I'm still with Mark:  I think that 4GB is for LDEV 1 disc...
>
>:-) ,
>Ken Sletten