RUSH HEAD <U24129@uicvm.uic.edu> (06/24/91)
Hello All. Just wondering if anyone out there knows if the Poqet 2 Meg ram cards work on the 95? How about the 4 meg ram cards? If so is any modification necessary or do they just plug right in? thanks in advance. RUSHRUSHRUSHRUSHRUSHRUSHRUSHRUSHRUSHRUSHRUSHRUSHRUSHRUSHRUSHRUSHRUSH P Internet:U24129@uicvm.uic.edu P - Patster Bitnet: U24129@uicvm.bitnet - G Genie: P.Choy G P P - OBRQ: "Memory banks unloading, bytes break into bits - G unit one's in trouble, and its scared out of its wits" G RUSHRUSHRUSHRUSHRUSHRUSHRUSHRUSHRUSHRUSHRUSHRUSHRUSHRUSHRUSHRUSHRUSH
everett@hpcvra.cv.hp.com. (Everett Kaser) (06/25/91)
/ U24129@uicvm.uic.edu (RUSH HEAD) / 9:43 pm Jun 23, 1991 / >Hello All. Just wondering if anyone out there knows if the Poqet 2 Meg ram >cards work on the 95? How about the 4 meg ram cards? If so is any modification >necessary or do they just plug right in? thanks in advance. No, I don't know. But I do know that IF they work, the 4 meg card will only look like 2 meg, and they'll both suck batteries like a sump pump. Everett Kaser Hewlett-Packard Company ...hplabs!hp-pcd!everett work: (503) 750-3569 Corvallis, Oregon everett%hpcvra@hplabs.hp.com home: (503) 928-5259 Albany, Oregon
dug@kd4nc.UUCP (Doug Drye KD4NC) (06/25/91)
U24129@uicvm.uic.edu (RUSH HEAD) writes: >Hello All. Just wondering if anyone out there knows if the Poqet 2 Meg ram >cards work on the 95? How about the 4 meg ram cards? If so is any modification >necessary or do they just plug right in? thanks in advance. According to what I read.. they should work.. I have no experience.. I read in several places that both computers take the "standard" memory cards. (I would love to be able to afford a 2 mb ram card for the HP95 right now after buying the 95, connectivity kit and having to keep my Wizard 8200 to do real work.!!!!) According to the HP manual, the HP95 will only support up to 2 mb cards (I can't quote page numbers, but I saw that somewhere), but that's enough for me.. What are the best prices for these Poquet cards? Does anyone know where to buy cheaper RAM for the HP95.. Service Merchandise charges $349 for the 512K card in my area. -- Doug Drye KD4NC
"Michael Graff" <graff@mlpvm2.vnet.ibm.com> (06/25/91)
HP 95LX 512K RAM card prices:
EduCalc Mail Store (714) 582-2637 Elek-Tek (708) 677-7660
27953 Cabot Road 7350 North Linder Avenue
Laguna Niguel, CA 92677 USA Skokie, Illinois 60077
(800) 677-7001 fax: (714) 582-1445 (800) 395-1000 fax: (708) 677-7168
(orders outside USA: +714 582-2637)
$320 $300
The catch: I don't think either place has them in stock at the
moment.
...Michaelrc2o+@andrew.cmu.edu (Richard Lee Chung) (06/26/91)
I have heard mixed stories as to whether they are interchangable. The one that seems to be the most popular is that they will work but they use a different formatting, which is not all to surprising. As for where to buy them, you should be able to get them for way less than $349. For that price, you should be getting the one megs. If you are interested in lower prices, email me and when I have my list of sources, I'll email you back. Rich Chung
everett@hpcvra.cv.hp.com. (Everett Kaser) (06/26/91)
Remember, folks, the reason the HP 512K cards cost >$300 is not just because they come from HP. The HP cards were designed to be VERY low power when not being accessed. This extends the battery life of the HP 95LX's main batteries IMMENSELY. Using other manufacturer's cards may work, but they will also probably shorten the battery life significantly. Also, of course, if you have problems with them, don't be too surprised if HP's support folks aren't too supportive :-). The trade-off, of course, is your's to make. On the subject of compatibility, most any card that is truly PCMCIA 1.0 (JEIDA 4.0) compatible SHOULD work in the HP 95LX. The formatting question comes up because some machines expect a SPECIFIC format and don't handle other formats. As an example, the HP 95LX formats the cards with 16 "sectors per track" (RAM disks have to emulate real disks, so this information is stored in the boot sector, even though the disk sectors are really laid out linearly). The HP 95LX can HANDLE other formats, it just chooses to use 16 secs/track when it does a FORMAT. However, the Poqet PC uses 8 sectors/track, and it appears that it can't handle a card that is formatted with any but 8 sectors/track. If you format a card in the HP 95LX, then using DEBUG, change the boot sector so that it says 8 sectors/track, the Poqet can read and write it just fine. (The HP 95LX can read/write the Poqet formatted cards just fine. It pays proper attention to the sectors/track field in the boot sector.) I'm not trying to pick on Poqet. I'm just using it as an example of how the hardware of the cards can be compatible, but the formatting not be. A second example is the PCMCIA Card Information Structure (CIS). This is a header that the PCMCIA standard "describes" that can be put on the front of a card in order to allow many different types of systems (from PC's to VCR's to the computer in your car, etc) to access (or least recognize) cards from other completely different systems. The problem is, as in anything that's designed by committee, the PCMCIA CIS structure has certain similarities to the ADA programming language (it contains not only my kitchen sink, but everyone elses, as well!). The PCMCIA "standard" document describes all kinds of information that CAN be in the CIS, and alludes to several "layers" of compatibility, and alludes to kind of what SHOULD be in the CIS for DOS machines, but never quite really comes out and takes a stand. As a result, you have to read the document for about six months, pick it apart analytically, talk to folks from several other companies to try to arrive at some kind of agreement as to what standard the PCMCIA standard is trying to set, then close your eyes and jump. The result is that different companies may implement the CIS in significantly different ways (if at all), and their products may or may not be able to understand each others CIS's (even though that was the purpose of the PCMCIA "standard" in the first place!). Luckily, a DOS "standard" will probably fall out eventually, due to the very loose cooperation of several companies (like HP, Microsoft, Databook, Poqet, Pamco Electronics, etc, to name a few in no particular order :-). However, to the best of my knowledge, the Poqet PC (the current ones) do not implement the PCMCIA CIS, nor understand how to process/skip it. The Poqet PC uses a standard RAM disk "pseudo floppy" format, which the HP 95LX also understands and CAN use. The HP 95LX, by default, formats its cards WITH a PCMCIA CIS on the front, followed by the "pseudo floppy" RAM disk. This makes it impossible for the current Poqet PCs to understand the card. So, in order to format a card on the HP 95LX that can be read/written by the Poqet, you must first format the card (from the DOS command line) with the FORMAT /p command (for Pseudo-floppy) and then use DEBUG to load the boot sector into memory, tweak the sectors/track entry from 0x10 to 0x08 (at offset 0x18 in the boot sector), then write the boot sector back out. Then, both the HP 95LX and the Poqet can read/write the card. Nothing special need be done to a Poqet formatted card, as the HP 95LX can understand it as is. This rambled on further and longer than I originally intended, but I hope that it helps clarify some of the issues surrounding RAM cards. Everett Kaser Hewlett-Packard Company ...hplabs!hp-pcd!everett work: (503) 750-3569 Corvallis, Oregon everett%hpcvra@hplabs.hp.com home: (503) 928-5259 Albany, Oregon