gviernes@wheeler-emh.arpa (12/04/86)
Has anyone got words (good or bad) on RamFactor? I've been looking at it and RamWorks III. I know if I got the latter my extended 80-column card would have to be retired. I'm already building a collection of cards which have been overcome by technology. RamWorks III has got some nice-to-have features/ options. However my most urgent need is additional memory. Fire away... Glenn
crc@OBERON.LCS.MIT.EDU (Charles Carley) (12/05/86)
I have been using the Ramfactor III for 6 months now in my IIe. It takes 3 min 22 sec to load Appleworks, ASCII Express, and various other applications into the 1 meg from cold boot. That is 2.5 disks. Once everything is loaded, its a breeze, to go anywhere. On the downside, Once an Appleworks WP file gets beyond 7500 lines it get very slow editing (max is 15400 lines) if you are dealing with large files it would be wise to invest in a transwarp card.
geoff@burl.ATT.COM (geoff) (12/05/86)
I have been using a Ramfactor 1Mbyte card for a few months. I have it configured as a standard ram disk. I have noticed that if I leave it for a few days it loses its memory (may either be more susceptible to line hits, or there may be some interaction with the Transwarp accelerator card) but I have never had a problem while using it. I don't trust ram disks enough to leave data up there anyway (I ALWAYS back them up to disk before quitting a terminal session) so I am not bothered by the memory loss. It, together with the Transwarp card, have made the Apple a joy to work on. I can edit-compile-test faster on my IIe than I can on the VAX I use at work most days. I highly recommend both cards. They are available at Preferred Computing (1-800-327-7234) for $289 for the 1M Ramfactor and $219 for the Transwarp (3.6 MHz accelerator), which compares to $389 and $279 from AE or a normal dealer. I ordered the Ramfactor from Preferred and it was there in about 3 days. They are also quite helpful over the phone and seem very responsive to problems (I mentioned my clock card problems on a previous posting -- they didn't know anything about my problem, but then neither did AE when I called them). -- geoff sherwood ...![ ihnp4 ulysses cbosgd mgnetp ]!burl!geoff ...![ ihnp4 cbosgd akgua masscomp ]!clyde!geoff
ranger@ecsvax.UUCP (Rick N. Fincher) (12/05/86)
In article <8612041148.aa14311@SPARK.BRL.ARPA>, gviernes@wheeler-emh.arpa writes: > > > Has anyone got words (good or bad) on RamFactor? I've been looking at it and > RamWorks III. I know if I got the latter my extended 80-column card would have The Ramfactor is a nice card, it is compatible with Apple's memory card. It also has the advantage of being a bootable device, Ramworks is not. Ramworks will let you partition the Ram drive so that it can be used as both a ram drive and for Appleworks storage. Ramfactor can be battery backed-up for instant booting from the Ram disk. If you don't want another orphan board, get Ramfactor, it works in the //gs, Ramworks does not. I would only recommend getting a Ramworks card if you didn't have an extended 80 column card, so you could get double hires. However, since you indicated that you already have an extended 80 col. board, I would definately say to get Ramfactor. The only two drawbacks of the Ramfactor are its lack of partitioning for both Appleworks space and the fact that it uses an odd type of RAM chip that is easier to battery back o battery back-up but is more expensive to buy for upgrading thwe amount of onboard RAM. Rick Fincher ranger@ecsvax
CLAK100@BGUNOS.BITNET (12/09/86)
Attn: Rick Fincher I enjoyed reading your comments on the RamFactor card as I am thinking of buying one. Can battery back-up be added without buying the manufacturer's back-up kit? Does the card come with a schematic diagram. I was thinking about adding a NiCad pack or lithium battery mayself. Your comments on this would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. Earl <Clak100@BGUNOS>
ranger@ecsvax.UUCP (Rick N. Fincher) (12/11/86)
In article <8612081353.aa00766@SPARK.BRL.ARPA>, CLAK100@BGUNOS.BITNET writes: > Attn: Rick Fincher > I enjoyed reading your comments on the RamFactor card as I am thinking of > buying one. Can battery back-up be added without buying the manufacturer's > back-up kit? Does the card come with a schematic diagram. I was thinking about > adding a NiCad pack or lithium battery mayself. Earl, There is no schematic in the Ramfactor manual. There is a 4 pin co connector on the card for connecting the backup power supply. The power supply automatically switches into the backup mode when you power down the system. If there is a power failure the backup unit automatically switches into the battery backup mode (the other mode is supported by AC power and can be maintained indefinately) and gives you about 5 hours of battery backup for the RAM card. The tech support folks at AE may be willing to give you a hand with this. The four pins on the card that the backup unit connects to have two jumper clips on them when the backup unit is not connected. I presume 2 of these pins are a strobe of some sort for an impending loss of power and the other 2 are the actual voltage lines. If AE won't help you out I can put a multimeter on the power supply and tell you what levels are on which pi pins. I don't have an O-scope so I won't be able to help much with what is on the card pins and the timing. Rick Fincher ranger@ecsvax PS- I was wrong about not being able to partition the Ramfactor into mu multiple Prodos sections so that you can run both an expanded Apple- works desktop and a Prodos RAM disk. The Ramfactor CAN do this. In fact, the card has onboard software in ROM to partition the card in up to four separate partitions. Only one Partition is active at a time. If you use a program that needs more than 128K, leave enough RAM in the first partition for that program. Software thinks the first partition is an Apple memory card and is ignorant of the other memory partitions. Then, set up the second partition as a Prodos Ram disk and you will be all set. This is nice for any program that automatically claims the Ram card for its own use, like Appleworks 1.3 or SuperCalc 3a. This way you get both the extra program RAM and the RAM disk. This is also nice because the partitions can be in any operating system (Dos 3.3, Pascal 1.3, CPM or Prodos) and all of the partitions are bootable. All you have to have to do to go from Prodos to Pascal, for instance, is run the built in program by tybooting the card (if the card hasn't been formatted for a particular operating system, booting a partition that has Basic in it and running the chpartition chooser from the monitor otherwise) and s selecting which partition you want to be active, and booting that par partition. The whole operation of quitting one operating system and booting another takes about 10 seconds. All partitions will maintain their contents during resets and control-open apple-resets, and if you have the battery backup, all of the partitions are maintained when the machine is powered down.
mkao@pnet01.cts.COM.UUCP (03/28/87)
I have a Ramfactor and a battery/AC backup (RamCharger). Let me tell you straight off: this is an EXCELLENT combination. A lot better than Ramworks. The Ramdisk is built into the EPROM and is a TRUE Ramdisk, as opposed to the Ramworks' disk caching method. Therefore, a lot more direct-sector-access programs will work with Ramfactor. Also, Ramfactor allows you to partition and even boot the Ramcard just like you would a hard drive. Combined with Ramcharger, you've got the FASTEST non-volatile mass-storage medium there is! If you want more details, let me know.