Helios 3/50 memory expansion

[Bob Sutterfield]

This machine is a 3/50, and for the past month or so has been blessed with
a Helios 8Mb expansion, for a blissful total of 12Mb.  After the initial
installation (we were a Beta site) and cleanup of a cold solder joint or
two, it has run like a champ.  I don't know what Sun's maintenance policy
will be for them, nor do I know what Helios' maintenance will be like, but
I haven't needed either yet for this expansion board.

A memory expansion makes a diskless 3/50 a usable workstation under X11
and other large window systems.  With the normal 4Mb, it swaps to death
and is quite painful to use.  Now, I can run a 5-way parallel make of the
X protocol library, and have my normal X server, Emacs, several xterms,
several other toys and tools, and still not swap.  When I move the mouse
across the screen, title stripes highlight immediately, rather than
pausing for a leisurely moment while the client and window manager are
eventually swapped back in.

If the economics are right for you, I'd recommend a memory expansion.
I'll miss it if it ever goes away.  It's *really* nice and results in a
useful workstation again for modern ever-more-bloated software.

(Of course, the standard disclaimers apply: I have no connection with
Helios or any other 3rd-party memory supplier for any machines, other than
as a happy Beta-tester.)