dgc@euphemia.math.ucla.edu (David G. Cantor) (10/27/90)
I finally found third-party 4Mbyte simms that actually FIT in the cpu board in the cube. They are the same physical size as the 1 Mbyte simms that come with the cpu. They were purchased from South Coast Electronics, 10920 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1100 Los Angeles, CA 90024 They were fabricated specially to fit into the NeXT. dgc David G. Cantor Department of Mathematics University of California at Los Angeles Internet: dgc@math.ucla.edu
dgc@euphemia.math.ucla.edu (David G. Cantor) (10/27/90)
I finally found third-party 4Mbyte simms that actually FIT in the cpu board in the cube. They are the same physical size as the 1 Mbyte simms that come with the cpu. They were purchased from South Coast Electronics, 10920 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1100 Los Angeles, CA 90024 They were fabricated specially to fit into the NeXT. dgc David G. Cantor Department of Mathematics University of California at Los Angeles Internet: dgc@math.ucla.edu
erikkay@athena.mit.edu (Erik Kay) (10/29/90)
David G. Cantor writes: >> I finally found third-party 4Mbyte simms that actually FIT in the >> cpu board of the cube.... . . .[stuff deleted] . >> They were specially made to fit into the NeXT. To the best of my knowledge, no simms have been "specially made to fit into the NeXT". To get simms which will fit into your cube, all you have to do is make sure you specify "low-profile" simms. They are slightly slimmer than normal profile. There are many chip retailers who sell these. Erik Kay MIT class of '92
treed@odie.UUCP (Timothy Reed) (10/29/90)
In article <1990Oct28.162406.15638@athena.mit.edu> erikkay@athena.mit.edu (Erik Kay) writes: > > >David G. Cantor writes: > >>> I finally found third-party 4Mbyte simms that actually FIT in the >>> cpu board of the cube.... >. >. >.[stuff deleted] >. >>> They were specially made to fit into the NeXT. > > >To the best of my knowledge, no simms have been "specially made to fit >into the NeXT". To get simms which will fit into your cube, all you >have to do is make sure you specify "low-profile" simms. They are >slightly slimmer than normal profile. There are many chip retailers >who sell these. Sorry. Normal "low profile" simms do not - I repeat - do not fit in a cube. Toshiba chips are a necessary ingredient, but the simm manufacturer must arrange them properly to make physically smaller board. Buy off the shelf low profile simms and prepare to be humiliated by tech support when you get stuck with >$1,000 of boards that don't fit. Yes, it is possible to take the cube apart, change some stuff, and put it together again, but it will put your system totally out of spec and unsupportable - i.e. the people you bought your cube from will find out that you made h/w mods, and laugh heartily you ask for support under your warrantee. (If you really want guaranteed-beyond-hardware-upgrades, fully supportable, etc., RAM, buy from the vendor.) However, David Cantor makes a valid point: at least vendors sell 4 MB simms that fit. This is a pretty significant deal for those who want third party for sure. It's also cool cause this is a sign that second tier vendors, (i.e. not lotus or wordperfect, who would probably not notice a software effort on yet-to-be established h/w), are reacting to our presence in the workstation market. David's news plus the establishment of the NeXT-Connection mail order house warms my object-oriented, message-passing heart. Pretty neat. > > >Erik Kay >MIT class of '92 Tim Reed Objective Tech. treed@object.com
scott@NIC.GAC.EDU (10/29/90)
treed@odie.UUCP (Timothy Reed) writes:
Sorry. Normal "low profile" simms do not - I repeat - do not fit
in a cube. Toshiba chips are a necessary ingredient, but the simm
manufacturer must arrange them properly to make physically smaller
board. Buy off the shelf low profile simms and prepare to be
humiliated by tech support when you get stuck with >$1,000 of boards
that don't fit. Yes, it is possible to take the cube apart, change
some stuff, and put it together again, but it will put your system
totally out of spec and unsupportable - i.e. the people you bought
your cube from will find out that you made h/w mods, and laugh
heartily you ask for support under your warrantee. (If you really
want guaranteed-beyond-hardware-upgrades, fully supportable, etc.,
RAM, buy from the vendor.)
Hmm. I've also heard that once you're past the little ribs, or whatever,
at the back of the cube, there aren't any problems. So, basically,
you sort of force stuff . . . Hmm. I don't want to do that.
Then again, I don't want a regular cube. The question of the day is:
Did NeXT give us a little clearance in the NeXTStation? I certainly
would like to grab 16M for $800-$850 (at best prices), rather than
$1100. Assuming standard reductions for the two to four months I
expect before getting one (I haven't even ordered it, yet), I'd
be looking at something in the $650-$700 range, which is ++good.
Much lower than that and I could be pushed to go for the full 32M!
It would also be nice if the new cubes allowed those extra 2 or 4 mm
for clearance, so that they don't require the (generally) more expensive
very-low-profile chips. Such mods are well within NeXT's reach.
Besides the fact that the 16M chips which are coming along will
probably need just a teeny bit more, also . . .
scott hess
scott@gac.edu
Independent NeXT Developer (Stuart)
NeXT Campus Consultant (Not much, really)
GAC Undergrad (Horrid. Simply Horrid. I mean the work!)
<I still speak for nobody>tim@ggumby.cs.caltech.edu (Timothy L. Kay) (10/29/90)
scott@NIC.GAC.EDU writes: >It would also be nice if the new cubes allowed those extra 2 or 4 mm >for clearance, so that they don't require the (generally) more expensive >very-low-profile chips. Such mods are well within NeXT's reach. >Besides the fact that the 16M chips which are coming along will >probably need just a teeny bit more, also . . . It is my understanding that the pinout for 16 MB SIMMs won't be compatible with the pinout for 256 KB, 1 MB, and 4 MB SIMMs. There simply aren't any more address lines available on the standard JEDEC SIMM. Can anybody confirm this? Tim
smithw@hamblin.math.byu.edu (Dr. William V. Smith) (10/29/90)
In <9010290610.AA01815@mcs-server.gac.edu> scott@NIC.GAC.EDU writes: >Hmm. I've also heard that once you're past the little ribs, or whatever, >at the back of the cube, there aren't any problems. So, basically, >you sort of force stuff . . . Hmm. I don't want to do that. You can easily use the "taller" 4 MB SIMMS, without "forcing stuff". You cannot get the full 64 MB with the taller SIMMS. But, you can buy a few of the shorter variety, if you want to and fill out all the SIMM banks with 4 MB SIMMS to get the 64 MB. I have 40 MB ram now in my cube (8 1 MB SIMMS and 8 4 MB SIMMS), all of the taller variety with "getting my machine out of spec" as someone said. No cutting traces or bending boards or bending the drive case. Its a very simple procedure and a somewhat cheaper alternative to the shorter SIMMS. Since I keep getting asked "how do you do it?" Here is a message I sent several people about the procedure, so listen up and get it straight ok? Ready? Here goes, take good notes now: To install 4 MB SIMMS in a cube, assuming they are the sort with chips mounted horizontally (these are somewhat taller than the 1 MB SIMMS as you must know),you must have 4 or 8, or 12 of them (it is rather more work to install 16 of them). Pull out the motherboard. If you have 16 1 MB SIMMS, you will have to remove the ones starting with socket 15 (sockets are numbered 0 to 15). Socket 15 is the one closest to the end of the board with the external connections on it (ethernet T connector, etc.). If you don't have 16 1 MB SIMMS installed, you should remove enough to use up whatever amount of 4 MB SIMMS you have available up to 12 sockets. Once you have your SIMMS installed, the board should have 1 MB SIMMS in sockets 0-3 at least (perhaps 0-7, etc.). Now looking at the open back of the cube, you will see two screws at the bottom holding in the drive/power supply case. Remove these two screws and carefully pull the drive case out of the cube. If you have never done this before, it could be a bit stiff but should slide right out after the initial pull. You probably have some kind of hard drive installed so you will need to remove one of the mounting screws for the hard drive (not the optical). The screw you must remove is the one (facing the back of the cube) on the right side closest to the back(i.e., closest to the back cover which you have removed to do this!)- be sure to check the other drive mounting screws to see that they are tight. The remaining three screws will provide sufficient support for the drive (I have a big WREN in my cube and things work fine). Now start the drive case back in to the cube about 1/4 of the way and then start the motherboard back in to the cube, connecting the drive cables back to the motherboard while the motherboard is a few inches further out than the drive case. Now slide the motherboard 1/4 the way into the cube until it is even with the drive case, then SLIDE THEM INTO THE CUBE TOGETHER. The fit is snug but there is a VERY small amount of space between the SIMMS and drive case when every thing is back together. If you are nervous about having your hard drive mounted with only 3 screws you can go out and buy a flat head screw to replace the standard round head you removed. Press both the motherboard and the drive case firmly into their connectors at the front of the cube. Reconnect the fan cable to the fan and without screwing in the backplate screws, hook up the monitor cable to the motherboard, plug in the power cord and start the machine . It does seem to be somewhat common to get bad 4 MB memorySIMMS so watch the boot on the ROM monitor. If you get error messages about memory, or the monitor doesn't light up, or something else is weird, it is probable that you have one or more bad SIMMS. Sometimes at boot the ROM monitor will tell you which sockets have bad memory, and sometimes it won't. Bad memory can also lead to strange things happening with apps dying unexpectedly or the windowserver dying, etc. If nothing is wrong with the boot (you may get a message about different size memory being installed in various blocks-this is ok, the ROM will keep track of this and you won't get a second message on another boot). Watch the boot process a couple of times and if every thing is ok, turn off the machine and tighten the screws on the backplate, hook up the rest of your stuff (printer, ethernet, etc.) and you've got more memory. I have 8 1 MB SIMMS and 8 4 MB SIMMS in my cube. Works like a champ, except one of the 4 MB SIMMS went bad oncea couple of months ago and the machine would hang all time. Watched a boot and the monitor told me I had a bad SIMM in socket 14. Replaced it and have never had any more trouble. My big jobs don't use much swap space now and things generally work much faster. Also, you can reinstall the same way on your upgrade board if you decide to go that route. NOW DOES EVERYONE HAVE THIS DOWN??? No strange mods necessary. This does not effect the warranty. If you do have a hardware problem, and you are worried about someone "seeing I have 'tall' 4 meg SIMMS in my cube", just take them out the same way. REMEMBER, the key is that the drive case and board must GO IN and OUT together. This is starting to sound like a marriage manual. I think I'll quit. -BILL- -- __________________Prof. William V. Smith____________________ EMail: smithw@hamblin.math.byu.edu or uunet!hamblin.math.byu.edu!smithw SMail: Math Dept. -- 314 TMCB; BYU; Provo, UT 84602 (USA) Phone: +1 801 378 2061 FAX: +1 801 378 2800
smithw@hamblin.math.byu.edu (Dr. William V. Smith) (10/29/90)
>Sorry. Normal "low profile" simms do not - I repeat - do not fit >in a cube. Toshiba chips are a necessary ingredient, but the simm >manufacturer must arrange them properly to make physically smaller >board. Buy off the shelf low profile simms and prepare to be >humiliated by tech support when you get stuck with >$1,000 of boards >that don't fit. Yes, it is possible to take the cube apart, change >some stuff, and put it together again, but it will put your system >totally out of spec and unsupportable - i.e. the people you bought >your cube from will find out that you made h/w mods, and laugh >heartily you ask for support under your warrantee. This is simply not true. See my rather long reply to another post in this thread. -Bill- -- __________________Prof. William V. Smith____________________ EMail: smithw@hamblin.math.byu.edu or uunet!hamblin.math.byu.edu!smithw SMail: Math Dept. -- 314 TMCB; BYU; Provo, UT 84602 (USA) Phone: +1 801 378 2061 FAX: +1 801 378 2800
smithw@hamblin.math.byu.edu (Dr. William V. Smith) (10/29/90)
I said: >in my cube (8 1 MB SIMMS and 8 4 MB SIMMS), all of the taller variety >with "getting my machine out of spec" as someone said. No cutting traces I *should* have said: in my cube (8 1 MB SIMMS and 8 4 MB SIMMS), all of the taller variety withOUT "getting my machine out of spec" as someone said. No cutting traces See the difference? Sorry. -Bill- -- __________________Prof. William V. Smith____________________ EMail: smithw@hamblin.math.byu.edu or uunet!hamblin.math.byu.edu!smithw SMail: Math Dept. -- 314 TMCB; BYU; Provo, UT 84602 (USA) Phone: +1 801 378 2061 FAX: +1 801 378 2800