The 512 meg of RAM is probably just due to the growth of the system. If you were not already aware, the entire system runs from RAM. If you were to pull the harddrive while the system was running the system would continue to function. Added functionality has obviously stretched the RAM requirements beyond the 256 that currently exists.
As for the EMAN requiring a new licence, True, but it is $0.00 so just paperwork required.
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Occam's Razor - All things being equal, the simplest solution is the right one.