[ Thanks to Jay Fink
for this link. ]
“Configuring the hardware for a UNIX system is nearly an act
of some sort of dark sorcery. The incredible amount of research
required into putting together an entire system takes time, so much
time, this particular column will not go into any great detail
about building entire systems but one aspect of systems,
memory. The difficult part about initial memory purchase
actually is not the purchasing but figuring out precisely how much.
On certain platform types this is not an issue due to cost (many
intel architectures for example have relatively cheap memory). Such
is not the case for high end RISC types of architectures. These can
cost all the way up to 3,000 dollars for 512MB of memory (depending
on the type). Additionally, most often, when budgetary and
political constraints begin to take shape (as they always do)
during the pricing, memory is almost always scrutinized and the “do
we really need this” will inevitably arise. This column will take a
long look at not the hard numbers for memory, but why you may (or
may not as the case may be) need a lot more memory than the
“standard” bundle. At the very end will be a sample configuration
based on some systems I have worked on….”
“Right off the top there are a variety of processes that do not
require an intense amount of resources unless they are put into a
special situation. In the case of say an internal DHCPd and DNS
server, it is unlikely that you would need a great deal of memory.
The same goes for file, print and static or low overhead HTTPd
services. These types of services do not incur a great deal of
overhead and standard matching memory to processor type of
configurations will get you by without great difficulty.”