knudsen@ihwpt.UUCP (mike knudsen) (05/16/86)
With the Chicagoland RainbowFest coming up, I'd like to hear anyone's opinions on the 256 - 512K RAM upgrades for the CoCo. These use bank-switching techniques to do neat things in RS Basic, but make great RAMdisks in OS9. Two I am considering are J&R's Banker and CRC's Disto. Both are reviewed in the latest MOTD (OS9 Users Group rag). The Banker installs inside your Coco and J&R sells an OS9 RAMdisk driver for it. The original 256K Banker used a bank-switching scheme that made RAMdisk access pretty slow, tho the MOTD article says the 512K version is as fast as the Disto. The Banker uses two daughter boards -- one plugs into your SAM socket and remounts it, and carries the logic. The other board board hold the RAM chips, and can be stuck anywhere (like under the keyboard, suggests MOTD). Jumpers connect it to the original RAM sockets, which I presume no longer need chips. These jumpers can adapt to the two-chip Korean RAMs too. The Disto just plugs into your Multi-Pak, which is neater than hacking your Coco and you can move it to another Coco. However, I'm already overcrowded in the MultiPak. At least the Disto doesn't require a specific slot. An advantage of Disto gadgets is that you can plug other CRC goodies into them, including an 80-column driver. Has anyone seen that? Is it available yet? What prices? Still in the vapor phase? How does it stack up against WordPak II? Looks like I could plug the Disto into the WordPak's slot and sell the WordPak, tho it's been working well lately. Both companies advertise in the Rainbow. The J&R ad is easy to miss. The Disto ad (inside back cover) is pretty but mentions NO prices! Since the Banker is cheaper in kit form (especially if you supply your own chips) and doesn't use a MultiPak slot, I'm leaning toward it. I'd appreciate your opinions. mike k PS: What does anyone know/feel about Coco Hard Disks? I'd like to hear some opinions BEFORE I get snowed under at the Fest.
emjej@uokvax.UUCP (05/21/86)
About the Disto 80-column stuff: not vaporware--several folks on CIS have mentioned using it. Only dissatisfaction I recall reading about is over- heating problems (lotsa stuff on that one board, fer shur!); I think one person with the problem drilled some holes in the case. James Jones