640K RAM Quote

Comments repeatedly reference the famous (often misattributed to Bill Gates) claim that '640K of memory ought to be enough for anybody,' used humorously to highlight historical underestimations of computer memory needs compared to today.

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20
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#4626
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
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2008
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2009
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2011
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2012
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2013
63
2014
77
2015
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2017
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2018
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2019
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2020
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2021
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2022
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2023
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Keywords

RAM TRS MB CPU AGI KB HDD BUS thelen.org wikipedia.org ram memory ought kb anybody storage computer hdd volatile computers

Sample Comments

WalterBright Mar 21, 2024 View on HN

Most people had 640K of memory.

elai Oct 16, 2008 View on HN

That's a bit reminiscent of "you just need 512k of RAM!"

hanche Mar 24, 2024 View on HN

And who needs more than 640 kilobytes of memory anyhow?

majewsky Sep 6, 2016 View on HN

And 640k RAM ought to be enough for everyone. ;)

justrealist Nov 21, 2023 View on HN

"No one will need more than 637KB of memory for a personal computer. 640KB ought to be enough for anybody"

jl6 Mar 24, 2017 View on HN

Didn't someone once say 640K ought to be enough for anyone?

santoshalper Apr 14, 2019 View on HN

32MB was a lot of memory back then. Typical machines at the time had 8. 16 was extravagant.

doodpants Nov 21, 2014 View on HN

Indeed, 640 KB ought to be enough for anybody. :/

nyxaiur Nov 4, 2021 View on HN

Nobody could ever need more than 640kb of RAM.

dtech Aug 17, 2017 View on HN

And 640k of memory ought to to be enough for anybody