rona@hpdml93.HP.COM (ron abramson) (12/28/88)
Okay, I have a 1040ST and I'm running out of RAM. I would like to go to 4 meg and want to know what people have bought and been satisfied with as far as an upgrade kit. I plan to get some 1 Mbit, 100 ns chips real soon now. Since I haven't noticed this question being posted, your responses would probably be of general interest. Thanks in advance for your help! Ron Abramson
hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu) (12/29/88)
In article <480013@hpdml93.HP.COM> rona@hpdml93.HP.COM (ron abramson) writes: >Okay, I have a 1040ST and I'm running out of RAM. > >I would like to go to 4 meg and want to know what people have >bought and been satisfied with as far as an upgrade kit. I >plan to get some 1 Mbit, 100 ns chips real soon now. Well, before I upgraded to a Mega-4, I had a Tech-Specialities board installed in my 1040. It worked pretty well, although the installation can get tricky. (The main problems being that on my board, one of the ribbon cables was *brittle*, and actually snapped from being flexed too much during the install. Simple enough to replace that, but it was somewhat inconvenient...) Also, with most upgrades, you have to add-in a plug to the video shifter chip, and the pins on that plug are easily bent out of alignment. (Worse yet, easily broken.) Basically this just means you have to be very very careful installing one of these things. I liked the board though; I only had 2 meg installed on it, giving me a 2.5meg system. I also got the clock option with it, which was a handy addition. Note, however, that ocassionally the system would bomb after booting up with the clock-setter. Dunno why, someone else told me "it happens" and I left it... (Something about accessing the IKBD after a boot...?) -- / /_ , ,_. Howard Chu / /(_/(__ University of Michigan / Computing Center College of LS&A ' Unix Project Information Systems
DAVISM@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Michael T. Davis) (12/29/88)
[blah!] I am a bit confused over the "2.5 megabyte" specification. To paraphrase Howard Chu, he writes that he installed a memory expansion board with 2 megs on-board into a 1040. How does this yield 2.5 megs? Thanks, Mike __________________________________________________________________________ | THE InterNet address> "KCGL1::DAVISM"@eng.ohio-state.edu | | or _maybe_> davism@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | These are my thoughts and do not necessarily reflect those of | |The Ohio State University, IRCC-Facilities Management, Koffolt Computer | |Graphics Lab, The OSU Chemical Engineering Department, or anyone else...| |************************************************************************| | "Daddy, Daddy!! Why's Mommy running across the field?" | | "Shut up Son, and reload." | --------------------------------------------------------------------------
hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu) (12/29/88)
In article <1304@accelerator.eng.ohio-state.edu> DAVISM@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Michael T. Davis) writes: > I am a bit confused over the "2.5 megabyte" specification. To >paraphrase Howard Chu, he writes that he installed a memory expansion >board with 2 megs on-board into a 1040. How does this yield 2.5 megs? The board comes with 32 sockets. There are originally 32 256K RAMs in the 1040. (The chips in the 1040 are soldered directly...) The Atari Memory Control Unit can only handle 32 chips. Ok... 2 meg, in 1Mbit chips, is 16 chips. Why leave the control unit idle on the other 16 addressable chips? Configure the board to use the 16 1Mbit chips, as well as 16 of the old 256Kbit chips. That all adds up to 2.5 MB. After this upgrade, you're left with 512KB worth of 256Kbit RAM lying around, with the other 512K of the 1040's original 1 MB still in use. -- / /_ , ,_. Howard Chu / /(_/(__ University of Michigan / Computing Center College of LS&A ' Unix Project Information Systems
jeff@tekcsc.MKT.TEK.COM (Jeff Beadles) (12/29/88)
In article <480013@hpdml93.HP.COM> rona@hpdml93.HP.COM (ron abramson) writes:
.I would like to go to 4 meg and want to know what people have
.bought and been satisfied with as far as an upgrade kit. I
.plan to get some 1 Mbit, 100 ns chips real soon now.
.
.Since I haven't noticed this question being posted, your responses
.would probably be of general interest. Thanks in advance for your
.help!
.
. Ron Abramson
I am also in close to the same situtation. However, I have a
new-style 1040, with the RAM under the power supply, not across the
front. Does anyone know of a ram board that will for in my 1040?
The Tech-Spec board will not install in the new style 1040's.
If you would rather send mail, then I'll summarize to Ron and the
Net-At-Large.
Jeff Beadles
---
Jeff Beadles IDG Customer Support Center Tektronix, Inc.
jeff@tekcsc.mkt.tek.com -or- POB 1000
..!tektronix!tekcsc.mkt.tek.com!jeff Wilsonville, OR. 97070 MS 63-171lharris@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu (Leonard Harris) (12/31/88)
In article <480013@hpdml93.HP.COM> rona@hpdml93.HP.COM (ron abramson) writes: >Okay, I have a 1040ST and I'm running out of RAM. > >I would like to go to 4 meg and want to know what people have >bought and been satisfied with as far as an upgrade kit. I >plan to get some 1 Mbit, 100 ns chips real soon now. > >Since I haven't noticed this question being posted, your responses >would probably be of general interest. Thanks in advance for your >help! > > Ron Abramson The best upgrade board I have seen is made by Datafree in Toronto. It is a 4 layer board for noise immunity, fits inside 1040's and 520's and connects via a small plug in daughter card and a 16 point solder template. It is VERY reliable and easy to install. It gives either 2.5 megs or 4 megs of memory depending how many 1 meg drams you install. I don't have an exact price but it is in the $200 range. Contact: Datafree Inc. (416) 741-9825 /len
ftw@masscomp.UUCP (Farrell Woods) (01/04/89)
In article <1304@accelerator.eng.ohio-state.edu> DAVISM@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Michael T. Davis) writes: >[blah!] > > I am a bit confused over the "2.5 megabyte" specification. To >paraphrase Howard Chu, he writes that he installed a memory expansion >board with 2 megs on-board into a 1040. How does this yield 2.5 megs? > > Thanks, > Mike > To install the Tech Specialities RAM upgrade, you must disable some or all of the existing RAM in the 1040. The memory glue chip can only deal with four banks of RAM, and the 1040 uses four banks of 256K-bit chips. I disabled two banks, leaving 512K of the original memory, and added two banks of 1 M-bit chips on the Tech board, giving 2.5M. Incidentally, I had access to professional desoldering stations to help me remove the two banks of RAM. I would not do this again. It is *really* difficult to do without damaging the motherboard. I do not have the clock option on this board, and it has been running fine for over one year. -- Farrell T. Woods Voice: (508) 692-6200 x2471 MASSCOMP Operating Systems Group Internet: ftw@masscomp.com 1 Technology Way uucp: {backbones}!masscomp!ftw Westford, MA 01886 OS/2: Half an operating system
ignac@electro.UUCP (Ignac Kolenko) (01/05/89)
what is the slowest memory that the atari st can use without adding more wait states. i've got 768K of rather slow memory (> 200ns access time i think) from an old machine that doesn't really work too well, and could be put to good use as expansion ram for the st. or do st memory expansions need to be in increments of 2M?? also, is there a good reason atari decided to make the cartridge port a READ ONLY port. it makes designing extra interfaces a REAL pain in the but. like, i haven't seen too many ROM cartridges (except the vt100 cartridge, and even that is not too hot), and virtually all cartridges out there require some way of writing to the cartridge port (ie: clocks, ram-disk cartridge, digitizers, etc) (maybe if atari sold kits that would give a 1040 an expansion port just like a mega st!!!!) :-) (that would be as nice as the "promise-lan", eh atari?) :-) :-) :-) -- Ignac A. Kolenko watmath!watcgl!electro!ignac "Sex farm woman, don't you see my silo risin' high? Working on a sex farm, hosing down your barn door, bothering your livestock, they know what I need!" from Sex Farm by Spinal Tap
ralph@laas.laas.fr (Ralph P. Sobek) (02/04/89)
In article <1988Dec30.164348.29000@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu>, lharris@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu (Leonard Harris) writes: | The best upgrade board I have seen is made by Datafree in Toronto. | It is a 4 layer board for noise immunity, fits inside 1040's and 520's | and connects via a small plug in daughter card and a 16 point solder | template. It is VERY reliable and easy to install. | It gives either 2.5 megs or 4 megs of memory depending how many | 1 meg drams you install. | I don't have an exact price but it is in the $200 range. | Contact: Datafree Inc. | (416) 741-9825 Sounds pretty good, but I would appreciate some more info. Could someone either 1) e-mail me or post Datafree's mailing address, or 2) give Datafree my mailing address (only for the guys in Toronto, of course). Thanks a lot. Ralph P. Sobek | UUCP: uunet!mcvax!inria!laas!ralph, or | ralph@laas.uucp LAAS-CNRS | Internet: ralph@laas.laas.fr, or 7, avenue du Colonel-Roche | ralph%laas.laas.fr@uunet.UU.NET F-31077 Toulouse Cedex, FRANCE | ARPA: sobek@eclair.Berkeley.EDU (forwarded\ +(33) 61-33-62-66 | BITNET/EARN: SOBEK@FRMOP11 \ to UUCP ) -- Ralph P. Sobek Disclaimer: The above ruminations are my own. ralph@laas.laas.fr Addresses are ordered by importance. ralph@laas.uucp, or ...!uunet!mcvax!laas!ralph If all else fails, try: SOBEK@FRMOP11.BITNET sobek@eclair.Berkeley.EDU