ins_bac@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Ajay Choudhri) (09/16/89)
Does anyone have any plans or information for constructing, a ram cartridge
dor use as a ram drive. I have heard of kits that allow for custom
aplications for the cartridge port. I have only heard this thru rumors.
Can anyone give e any pointers in the right direction or even sources
for such boards.
-Ajay
hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu) (09/26/89)
In article <2539@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> ins_bac@jhunix.UUCP (Ajay Choudhri) writes: >Does anyone have any plans or information for constructing, a ram cartridge >dor use as a ram drive. I have heard of kits that allow for custom >aplications for the cartridge port. I have only heard this thru rumors. >Can anyone give e any pointers in the right direction or even sources >for such boards. I don't know about build-it-yourself kits, but Alpha Systems makes a line of RAMboxes that plug into the cartridge port. Can be sized from 512K to 4Meg, with or without battery backup and clock. I have a 2Meg Ultradisk with battery backup. This thing is pretty cool, expandable to 4Meg. You can configure it for however many disk partitions you want, and can make a partition bootable as well. I really like this feature, because I tend to leave my hard drive off (too noisy) and I can stick auto-boot progs onto that cartridge instead. You can also allocate up to 60K of the memory as a printer buffer, which I've found to be pretty handy. No point in eating up main memory for that... Anyway.... I really like mine. Too bad I probably can't use it with any other cartridge gizmos... Obligatory disclaimer - I'm not related to Alpha Systems in any way other than as a satisfied customer... -- -=- PrayerMail: Send 100Mbits to holyghost@father.son[127.0.0.1] and You Too can have a Personal Electronic Relationship with God!
jg@hpldola.HP.COM (Joe Gilray) (10/02/89)
The Ultradisk sounds pretty cool, Howard, but your note immediately provoked a rash of questions in my mind: 1) How much did it cost? 2) where can I get one? 3) How fast is it? Comparable to a main memory Ramdisk or a harddisk? Transfer rate? 4) how big is it (physically)? 5) how long does the battery last? 6) you can auto boot from it? (you already answered this one) 7) is it compatible with harddisks? (and this one, but I'm runnning out of questions) 8) etc, etc, etc? Expiring minds need to know! Thanks! Joe Gilray
hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu) (10/04/89)
In article <11830057@hpldola.HP.COM> jg@hpldola.HP.COM (Joe Gilray) writes: > >The Ultradisk sounds pretty cool, Howard, but your note immediately provoked >a rash of questions in my mind: Sorry for such an incomplete posting! }-) Some answers... > >1) How much did it cost? I ordered mine at the Dearborn World of Atari Show, so they were discounted somewhat. Came out to around $500 for the 2 meg cartridge (expandable to 4M). >2) where can I get one? I ordered directly from Alpha Systems. 216-374-7469, 24 hour, call 'em and ask for a (free) catalog. I've seen other mail order places listing their products, but don't have any names offhand... >3) How fast is it? Comparable to a main memory Ramdisk or a harddisk? > Transfer rate? From Qindex13.PRG... A: C: N: GEMDOS 97% 1147% 1451% DMA 112% 6814% 4388% The C drive is my Quantum 80 hard drive, the N drive is my first Ultradisk partition. Kind of surprising that it's slower than the hard disk for DMA operations... btw, 120ns RAMs are installed. >4) how big is it (physically)? It's kind of an L-shape, but when plugged in to the cart port, the remainder is about 3-4" wide and 6" long... >5) how long does the battery last? The docs say "several hours" as long as the adapter jack has something plugged into it. (Smart switch connected to the jack.) In practice, I've had the thing completely powered down for about a week (went on vacation) and it still had everything intact when I powered up the ST. >6) you can auto boot from it? (you already answered this one) Yep, you can autoboot, and you're supposed to be able to disable the autoboot with the Ctrl-Shift keys, but I haven't been able to get this to work. As such, I tend to use a program like bootedit to select auto programs & stuff. (For those times when I need to boot from a floppy. Btw, Falcon runs great off the Ultradisk.) >7) is it compatible with harddisks? (and this one, but I'm runnning out > of questions) Yep, I have no problems using it and the Supra autobooter... >8) etc, etc, etc? Hm... Well, since I have a Mega, I didn't get the clock option. It allows using up to 60K as a printer buffer, which I find very handy. I haven't opened it up yet, but expect to fill it to 4M sometime soon. (Heh - an 8 meg ST. Cool stuff.) No technical specs for what the driver does, unfortunately. No passthru for other cartridges either, also unfortunate. I'd like to use it with Minix, but for now I'm sitting idle on that. Sorry I didn't measure an in-RAM RAMdisks for comparison, but (understandably?) I don't keep any of those around any more... > >Expiring minds need to know! > >Thanks! >Joe Gilray No prob. I'm always happy to brag about my computer. (Usually to poor benighted PC & Mac drones, but what the hell... }-) -- -=- PrayerMail: Send 100Mbits to holyghost@father.son[127.0.0.1] and You Too can have a Personal Electronic Relationship with God!