src@cs.odu.edu (Scott R. Chilcote) (10/04/89)
Sorry if this message is a repeat. I was told that nobody saw it go by at a couple of local nodes... ============================================================================= I opened my Mega 2 last week to install TOS 1.4, and discovered a TRULY AMAZING thing. The machine had a complete set of RAM chips, a total of FOUR MEGABYTES worth, installed!! I was freaked out! The machine was shipped in a Mega 2 box, and all of my system utilities agreed that it had two megabytes of RAM operating. And yet, there, on the motherboard, I had thirty-two 1-meg RAM chips, FOUR MEGs worth! (One strange thing about the computer, though -- it was supplied with a Mega ST4 sticker on the front. The bottom of the machine, however, had a Mega 2 sticker. The salesman told me that it was a mistake that had happened on a couple of Mega 2s they'd been shipped.) Somehow, Atari had disabled the second bank of RAM and sold this unit as a two-megger! The question was, how? I looked at the board and the schematics, and found no handy jumpers, no labels of any kind. It was even speculated that perhaps bad chips had been used. Not so! I took the board out completely and went over the bottom side. After intensive searching, I found that the RAS2* line -- the Row Address Strobe for the upper banks of memory, had not been soldered. I soldered. So, for the cost of soldering one pin of one IC to the motherboard, I have a FOUR MEGABYTE computer!! THANKS, ATARI! <several gripes forgiven!> Next, I'm going to be peering around in there for a 25 MHz 68030 chip with some unsoldered leads! ----------------------------------------- Usenet: src@xanth.UUCP DDN: src%xanth.cs.odu.edu ----------------------------------------- -- ___________________________________________________________________________ |.--------------------------------..---------------------------------------.| || Usenet: src@xanth.UUCP || || || Arpa: src@xanth.cs.odu.edu || Q: Why did the chicken cross the || || Earth: Scott R. Chilcote || Moebus Strip? || || || || || ||| "Sure, Jack, we || A: To get to... er... umm... || || ||| trust you. But will || || || / | \ will you respect us || -----=====#####=====----- || || / | \ in the morning?" || || |:________________________________:'---------------------------------------'| '---------------------------------------------------------------------------'
landry@enginr.dec.com (10/09/89)
In article <10085@xanth.cs.odu.edu>, src@cs.odu.edu (Scott R. Chilcote) writes...
"
" I opened my Mega 2 last week to install TOS 1.4, and discovered a TRULY
"AMAZING thing. The machine had a complete set of RAM chips, a total of
"FOUR MEGABYTES worth, installed!!
"
" <etc>
"
" So, for the cost of soldering one pin of one IC to the motherboard, I
"have a FOUR MEGABYTE computer!!
"
My guess is that this was a Mega 4 that didn't pass the checkout.
In the same way that chip makers sell slow chips at slower specs,
Atari is probably selling Mega 4 fallouts as Mega 2's. It's
probably cheaper for them to give away the chips than to repair
the boards (on the average). So you got lucky!
chrissrc@cs.odu.edu (Scott R. Chilcote) (10/10/89)
In article <5261@shlump.nac.dec.com> landry@enginr.dec.com writes: >" >" So, for the cost of soldering one pin of one IC to the motherboard, I >"have a FOUR MEGABYTE computer!! >" > > My guess is that this was a Mega 4 that didn't pass the checkout. > ... > So you got lucky! > > chris I originally suspected this, but there's no evidence to support your belief. The (now) Mega 4 has been operating flawlessly as a four-Meg machine for several days now. Also, the method by which the upper banks were disabled doesn't support the possibility of the machine ever having been intended to function as a Mega 4. When the RAS2* pin was left _unsoldered_, rather than clippied or disconnected, no test could have been made of the machine with all four Megabytes operating. At this point, it seems that it must have been less expensive for Atari to make some machines with all of the RAM filled than to make two production runs separately, one for each size machine. In order for that to have happened, Atari must have either been WAY behind on Mega 2 deliveries, or have gotten a _very_ good price on 1 Megabyte DRAMs! Scott -- ___________________________________________________________________________ |.--------------------------------..---------------------------------------.| || Usenet: src@xanth.UUCP || || || Arpa: src@xanth.cs.odu.edu || Q: Why did the chicken cross the || || Earth: Scott R. Chilcote || Moebus Strip? || || || || || ||| "Sure, Jack, we || A: To get to... er... umm... || || ||| trust you. But will || || || / | \ will you respect us || -----=====#####=====----- || || / | \ in the morning?" || || |:________________________________:'---------------------------------------'| '---------------------------------------------------------------------------'