Star Update on the 12" Powerbook Review; Altitude Problems?
Linked by Eugenia Loli-Queru on Mon 3rd Mar 2003 20:39 UTC
Apple OSNews featured two reviews of the new 12" Powerbook from Apple last month. Using a machine and more fairly evaluating it, is a continuous process, so when new facts emerge, we should be reporting them back. So, what I discovered this weekend is that my 12" Powerbook doesn't like... the mountains. Read on, it is an interesting issue. Update: The issue is now logged at Apple's tech support db.
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RE: Swapping vs. virtual memory
by Chip Slush on Mon 3rd Mar 2003 23:27 UTC

> I only had a single Safari window open and nothing else. Hardly a 640 MB/swap case... ;)

True, but still, I doubt the OS would bring the entire browser into RAM -- plus you have cache accesses occuring in a browser.

The sort of on-demand paging I am speaking of is a black art in OS design. It's basically gambling, but it can be tuned to "typical use". The gamble is that of the 100 bazillion functions in word, you will only end up using 8 of them during the course of a word session. Your job is to figure out in *any given proggy* what the top eight functions are (this is simplistic, it's more like the top 8 code paths), and make those resident in memory, and keep enough spare room around for the next new thing you will ask of the OS.