[comp.sys.next] 4 Mb SIMMs

stuart@cookie.cs.uchicago.edu (Stuart A. Kurtz) (05/30/90)

I'm considering adding some 4MB simms to my NeXT.

What are the good sources?
What are the performance requirements for the '040?
What questions should I be asking?

I'll gladly summarize and repost.

Thanks,

Stu

SLVQC@CUNYVM (Salvatore Saieva) (06/01/90)

Stuart,

I tried twice to send you a private reply but the mailer
at uchimvs1 returns my message unable to deliver the mail to
your host. Here's my reply anyways:

Don't know too much about the 4MB SIMMs but we just bought 20 1MB
SIMMs from ClearPoint Computers (800-253-2778). They were very helpful
over the phone and had the best price. ClearPoint is a pretty big
company, I would imagine they would stock the 4MB chips for the NeXT.
You can also try The Chip Merchant (619-268-4774); people on the net
have said they were using The Chip Merchant SIMMs in their machines.

On the purchase order we sent out for the 20 SIMMs, we specified
``1MB, 1x8, 80ns, Memory SIMM for the NeXT Computer, (SamSung Part or
equivalent).'' This got us the right chips from ClearPoint. (You will,
however, want to say ``4MB, 1x8,...'')

You raised a good question regarding the '040 upgrade. The '040 wasn't
announced when we ordered our SIMMs, so, I wasn't thinking that far
ahead. (I should hope they work in the new CPU board.) I'll be keeping
an eye open for your summary.

Sal.
----------
 Salvatore Saieva                            Internet: slvqc@cunyvm.cuny.edu
 Queens College, Academic Computer Center      BITNET: slvqc@cunyvm.bitnet
 65-30 Kissena Blvd, Flushing, N.Y. 11367     DeskNet: (718) 520-7662

ams@fourier.Princeton.EDU (Andrew Simms) (06/03/90)

If you know what you need, you may also wish to consider Impediment,
617/837-8877.  They also offer a complete product line of memory
products, at significantly lower prices than Clearpoint, and they
will almost always beat any quote price you can give them.  Default
warranty is 6 years, but if you say you need lifetime and are going
with Clearpoint, they will match that too.


----------------------------------------------------------------------

  Andrew Simms					ams@acm.princeton.edu
  System Administrator
  Program in Applied and Computational Math
  Princeton University
  Princeton, NJ   08544
  609/258-5324 or 609/258-6227
  609/258-1054 (fax)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

  Andrew Simms                                  ams@acm.princeton.edu
  System Administrator
  Program in Applied and Computational Math
  Princeton University
  Princeton, NJ   08544
  609/258-5324 or 609/258-6227

smithw@hamblin.byu.edu (William V. Smith) (08/07/90)

Low profile 4 Mb SIMMS work fine or so the word from Redwood City goes.
We just bought a bunch of them....

smithw@hamblin.math.byu.edu (William V. Smith) (08/23/90)

  Just thought I'd let you all in on the continuing saga of 4 meg simms
and the NeXT.  We just bought a load of them for our NeXTen and I
drew the job of putting them in since I shot my mouth off so many
times about getting some.  The ones we bought are from 

Computer Service Technology
2546 Merrell
Dallas, Tx 75229

They have the name "Century" stamped on the back.  We had two bad simms
in the batch and the machine we tested them in did weird things when
these bad simms were installed: once the screen would not come on, and
the other time we got an error message on the boot panel...can't remember
what it was.  The chips on these simms are Toshiba.  The simms cost
$250.00 each.

These simms ARE somewhat taller than standard low profile 1 meg simms that
come with the cube.  To get them to fit, I installed 8 of them in the last
two banks and removed one of the screws holding my hard drive (this does not
seem to effect the stability of the mount, but if I do any extensive
moving, I will put in a flat head screw instead of the round head.) Next
I had to pull out the drive/power supply case and slid the motherboard and
the drive case in TOGETHER since there are a couple of humps in the
drive case that make it difficult to slid the board past with the
taller 4 meg simms installed.

A word of warning:  4 meg simms work fine but they are not officially
supported yet by NeXT.  Also, you MUST install four simms at a time.
No fair not filling a bank.  It is possible (though I doubt it) that
your warranty could be effected by this installation.  (Mine has run
out anyway).  Since the 4 meg simms are taller, they could effect
the air flow in the cube.  In case you aren't getting the hint, I
won't assume any responsiblity for what you do with this information.
I should note that the 9 bit wide simms we bought for another machine
also fit in the NeXT. They appear to work just fine, but presently 
the NeXT does no parity check so the extra chip is not used.  My
guess is that this will change soon since some government applications
require parity checking so NeXT may want to cater to them.  Just a
guess.  Also, the source we bought these simms from does not appear
on the updated simm source list I posted some days ago. I will add it
when I get time.  Any way, my machine now has 40 meg of ram and
runs quite well.  Looking forward to the upgrade next month.
-Bill-