Handy Board FAQ Answers: “icmemory”
How much of the Handy Board's 32K memory is available for user programs running under Interactive C?
Here is an approximate breakdown of how Interactive C makes use of the Handy Board's 32K of RAM:
| Purpose | Mem Usage |
| Runtime P-Code OS | 7936 bytes |
| Stack space for user processes | 6656 bytes |
| Buffer for interaction process | 256 bytes |
| Buffer for printing | 256 bytes |
| User program object code plus user global variables |
16320 bytes available |
Thus, about 16K of the memory is reserved for user code plus user globals. Since Interactive C compiles into code for the runtime virtual machine rather than into 68HC11 machine language, user IC programs tend to be more compact than those compiled with traditional compilers, partially offsetting the overhead of the IC system itself.
(Last updated 2000-09-27)