Hacker News Reader

256MB was pretty much bare minimum to run contemporary software on a PC in 2004.

"Feb 2001 128MB DIMM was $59. Aug 2001 256MB module was $49. Feb 2002 256MB $34. April 2003 hit bottom with $39 512MB DIMMs"

The Power4 MCM had 128 MB cache in 2001. The G4 TiBook sold the same year came with 128 MB of system RAM base, and OS X supported 64 MB configurations for a few years after this.

The RAM prices are so high and the storage is also getting more expensive every day, so we're forced to fit everything inside the CPU cache as a solution! /s

It would be interesting if it allowed to use the cache as ram and could boot without any sticks on the motherboard.

Instead of a cache you could put down an SRAM buffer, it would be more efficient than a cache and just as fast. And addressable. Interesting idea.

Several processors support this by effectively locking cache lines. At the low end, it allows a handful of fast interrupt routines without dedicated TCM. At the high end, it allows boot ROMs to negotiate DRAM links in software, avoiding both the catch 22 and complex hardware negotiation.