From: et472@FreeNet.Carleton.CA   
      
    (puritan_2076@yahoo.com) writes:   
   > I may be wrong, but I'm pretty shure I've seen one or two with 512k   
   > labels, but I may be thinking of the box it came in, and I know I saw   
   > one of those (with a CoCo 3 in it) that said "512k Color Computer 3".   
   > The funy thing about that is I've never found a reference in a catalog   
   > to RS selling the CoCo 3 with 512k installed.   
   >   
   I think that's true, that Radio Shack didn't sell 512K CoCo IIIs.   
      
   It's not really a surprise.  OS-9 took advantage of more memory, but   
   none of the existing software did (assuming it would run in the CoCo III).   
   Certainly RSDOS/BASIC didn't, I can't recall but I'm not sure it even   
   used the extra 64K of RAM for the user.  That always explained the 512K   
   upgrades that all came with RAMdisk and print spooler software, so the   
   non-OS-9 user had something to make use of the extra ram, which of course   
   maybe made the upgrade worth buying by those users.   
      
   Eventualy, CoCo-III software did come on the market that took advantage   
   of the extra RAM.   
      
   In the early days, it made sense for Radio Shack to sell the CoCo with   
   differing amounts of RAM.  Initially, the RAM was expensive, so they   
   could sell a product cheaper.  But the computer did make use of   
   64K if it was in place, and so they could sell it to those who wanted   
   it.   
      
   Even when I bought my first CoCo, in 1984, it actually ended up being   
   cheaper to buy a 16K and add change the RAM myself to get a 64K,   
   helped along by the fact that when I wanted to buy, there seemed   
   to be no 64K's in stock here.   
      
   But with the 512K upgrade offering little, and the 128K giving all   
   that was needed by most, it likely seemed to make little sense   
   to go to the trouble (a separate assembly line, or at least partial,   
   different boxes, maybe different literature) of selling a 512K unit.   
      
      Michael   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)