System Memory over the years
| Year | Low End | High End | Representative Systems |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | 1K | 4K | Altair (Apr 1975: 1K) |
| 1978 | 4K | 16K | Apple II (Jun 1977: 4K) |
| 1981 | 16K | 64K | PC (Aug 1981: 16K), Commodore 64 (1982) |
| 1984 | 64K | 256K | Macintosh (Jan 1984: 128K), Amiga 1000 (1985: 256K) |
| 1987 | 256K | 1M | Amiga 500 (1987: 512K), Compaq Deskpro, IBM PS/2 |
| 1990 | 1M | 4M | Windows 3.0 (1990) 3.1 (1992), Linux 0.01 (1991)[a] |
| 1993 | 4M | 16M | OS/2 3.0 (Nov 1994), Linux 1.0 (Mar 1994) |
| 1996 | 16M | 64M | Win 95 (Aug 1995), Linux 2.0 (Jun 1996) |
| 1999 | 64M | 256M | Windows 2000 (Feb 2000), Windows XP (2001), Linux 2.2 (Jan 1999) |
| 2002 | 256M | 1G | Linux 2.4 (Jan 2001), MacOS X (Mar 2001) |
| 2005 | 1G | 4G | Linux 2.6 (Jan 2003), Win x86-64 (Apr 2005) |
| 2008 | 4G | 16G | The new 64-bit desktop. |
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[a] Footnote: Linus Torvalds had 4 megs in 1991, but implemented swapping to support people with 2 megabyte systems within a few months.
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Memory in desktop system over the years.