douglas@reed.UUCP (P Douglas Reeder) (03/19/88)
How much does it cost to get that memory expansion to the IIc, and how useful is it? Is it easy to use from your own programs? -- Doug Reeder USENET: ...!tektronix!reed!douglas Box 502 Reed College from BITNET: douglas@reed.UUCP 3203 S.E. Woodstock from ARPA: !tektronix!reed!douglas@Berkley Portland, OR 97202 NGC4503: Local Group,Milky Way,Sol III,122 38'W 45 28'N
SWGRAHAM@MTUS5.BITNET (03/21/88)
Date: 20 March 1988, 19:45:09 EST From: SWGRAHAM at MTUS5 To: INFO-APPLE at BRL.ARPA Subject: extra memory for the IIc Doug Reeder wrote: >How much does it cost to get that memory expansion to the IIc, and how >useful is it? Is it easy to use from your own programs? Price: Applied Engineering makes a line of memory expansion cards for the IIc. Here are some prices that are quoted from the Preferred Computing ad on the inside cover of the March 1988 ^Call-A.P.P.L.E^: Ultra 1 256K $169 Memory only 512K $229 ------------------------------------------------------------- Ultra 2 256K $229 Memory & Clock 512K $289 1Meg $409 ------------------------------------------------------------- Ultra 3 256K $279 Memory, Clock, 512K $339 & CP/M 1Meg $459 Checkmate also makes a line of memory cards for the IIc. Their prices are about the same. Usefulness: The easiest way to use memory expansion is as a RAM-disk. I bought the 512K Ultra I about a year ago, and I've been very happy with it. A 512K RAM disk gives you a ProDos volume of 992 blocks. I can load that up with AppleWorks, Basic.System, and a few utility programs, and still have about 500 blocks of memory. There are two ways to use the memory expansion cards with Appleworks. One way is to use the extra memory as an expanded desktop. With a 512K card, you can get a 401K desktop. A second method (and this is the method I prefer) is to load all of AppleWorks into /RAM. This gives you a normal size desktop, but it eliminates the need for any disk-swapping. AppleWorks 1.1 and 1.2 can be loaded into /RAM without any modifications. AppleWorks 2.0 does not recognize the AE cards; it recognizes only cards that follow a certain protocol developed by Apple. However, Version 2.0 can be patched so that it does recognize the AE cards. A patch program appears on the Beagle Bros Super-Macroworks disk. As for using the expansion card in your own programs: again, the easiest way is via /RAM. You can read and write to /RAM just as you can to any other ProDos volume. Moreover, operations on /RAM are much faster and much quieter than operations on a floppy disk. I'm not an expert on it, but I understand that you can acess the memory expansion card directly with some judicious bank-switching. Installation: AE says that if you can change a light-bulb, you can install one of their cards. Don't beleive it. If you are fairly good with electronic hardware, you can probably install it yourself. If you're a ten-thumbed klutz like me, you should take it to your local technician and pay him ( or her ) to install it. A serious disclaimer: I have no official relation to Applied Engineering or Beagle Bros; I'm only a satisfied customer. Sid Graham swgraham@mtus5.bitnet
mw22+@andrew.cmu.edu (Michael Alan Wertheim) (03/24/88)
I have an Apple //c with a 512k Checkmate MultiRam card. (See their ads in Nibble, A+, etc. for prices.) Mainly I use the 512k as a ramdisk, using the software that comes with the card. I can load all of Appleworks and all of the Pinpoint Spelling Checker, with dictionary, onto the card at once. (It takes a few minutes to do this, though.) My normal setup, though, is Appleworks and Basic.System on the Ramcard. I can then switch from one to the other in about three seconds. I use this to write/run Applesoft programs that process text files produced by the Appleworks data base or spreadsheet. As for using the 512k in your programs -- if you buy "Program Writer" from Beagle Bros, you also get something called "ProBasic", which is like Basic.System, but it adds a slew of extra features to Applesoft, including the ability to store arrays in a disk-based text file instead of in memory. The array can be accessed using normal Applesoft array syntax. I am not sure if Beagle Bros still sells "ProBasic" with "Program Writer", so you might want to call them up to find out how to get it. Michael Wertheim Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA Arpa: mw22@andrew.cmu.edu Bitnet: mw22%andrew@cmccvb
crimmins@csli.STANFORD.EDU (Mark Crimmins) (03/24/88)
In article <gWG4j1y00W0NA9q0ZZ@andrew.cmu.edu> mw22+@andrew.cmu.edu (Michael Alan Wertheim) writes: >I have an Apple //c with a 512k Checkmate MultiRam card. (See their ads in >Nibble, A+, etc. for prices.) > >Mainly I use the 512k as a ramdisk, using the software that comes with the >card. I can load all of Appleworks and all of the Pinpoint Spelling Checker, >with dictionary, onto the card at once. (It takes a few minutes to do this, >though.) > I have a 1 Meg Z-Ram Ultra II; I use a 768K ram-disk. It used to take me over 3 minutes to load it up with all the stuff I keep on it (from floppies). Then I tried Glen Bredon's Backup and Restore programs which are bundled with his $40 ProSel package (a nice deal, even if there are a few bugs here and there). With Restore, my load-up time is cut by a whole lot -- something like 70%. I used to use the Applied Engineering Autocopy program. Now I'm not as upset about turning my //c off, or using a program like MouseTalk, which nukes ram-disks (but a new version is about to be released which'll fix this). So even if you don't like Bredon's ProSel selector (I don't), there's lots of other useful stuff in the package that's worth the dough. Mark Crimmins (crimmins@csli.stanford.edu)