Where does all the RAM go? — Nokia 9210 and 9290 — All About Symbian Forum Archive

SwitchBlade 18 Jan 2002, 23:16

Ok I've been using TaskManager for a little while and have noticed that the most free RAM I've managed to get is 3.5 MB, now the 9210 is an 8MB machine and all that TaskManager reported running was Desk and that was using 50KB, now I'm assuming that TaskManager only uses about 100-150KB itself, so where is 4.5MB of RAM going?

Does the OS underneath all this *really* over 4MB to run, and if so, doesn't that make 8MB in total seem very skimpy?

Now I dont' know much about the 9210's internal design, I'm guessing to use this much that GFX RAM can't be sepperate (and that would account for 256KB (640x200x16BPP)) contacts and calendar aren't permanently loaded although clock probably is. What else does the OS put into RAM to fill it so much? Surely the bulk of this will run off a ROM and should only store temporary data in the RAM such as copied stuff, and erm programs...?

Any ideas/firmware programmers with answers?

N9210 19 Jan 2002, 00:10

If you have Switcher, open that - press V to change view and you will se some of the processes that are running.

As per my thread about the 9210i - I think there was some sort of problem addressing RAM above 8MB that they had which is why they left it at 8Mb.

As for the OS taking up so much RAM - yeah, does seem a lot, but maybe it's to speed it up as the RAM is a LOT faster than the Flash RAM that the OS is stored on.

Just my random thoughts..

SwitchBlade 19 Jan 2002, 01:45

Perhaps I'm too old and looking at it from the point of view like my old atari, where the OS ran from the ROM hence saving RAM, but then, that's an idea that went out of date with the idea that the OS should be fast with a small footprint.