greg@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Greg Harp) (10/27/90)
I own a BaseBoard memory expansion for my A500. This is a "trap-door" style
expansion that allows up to 4MB (6MB with a daughterboard) of Fast RAM to
be added.
I have 3MB of 80ns 256x4 DRAMs installed on this board, and I believe I put
the chips in the correct positions (there are 8 banks of 512K). The docs
state that the first 2MB of RAM must be placed in specific banks. After that,
extra memory can be placed in any bank. I don't remember which banks are
specified, but I know I get the 1.8MB of autoconfig RAM as specified, so I
believe I have this correct. The docs also state that the expansion can
be populated in 512K increments.
The docs say to use their utility called "cram" to automatically add the
rest of the memory. It requires addmem (and I think 'run') to be in the c:
directory, which I have done. My problem is that after running addmem, I get
the correct amount of memory added (on section of 200K leftover from the first
2MB and a separate section of 1MB), but I can't use it for anything.
Avail gives unpredictable results (often negative numbers!). Mclk, perfmon,
and other utilities acknowledge the memory, but nothing uses it. For example,
my RAM disk will fill up while mclk still shows me having about 1200K free.
ARTM shows the following:
Address Pri Attr Lower Upper Maximum In-Use Free Largest Name
800000 0 0004 800020 8ffff8 1023kB 9kB 1014kB 1012kB (See Below)
f40000 0 0004 f40020 f7fff8 255kB 0kB 255kB 255kB (See Below)
c004c2 0 0005 c004e8 dbe800 1784kB 1522kB 262kB 246kB Fast Memory
000400 -10 0003 000420 080000 510kB 218kB 292kB 214kB Chip Memory
total: 3575kB 1750kB 1824kB
In reference to the "(See Below)"'s: These have nothing written in them
right now, but they usually say "NpNu" (the letter u has an accent over it).
I have a standard Fat Agnus (512K chip version) and a Rev. 5 motherboard.
I added the KS1.3 ROM just before I got the memory board. I have no other
expansion devices connected.
BTW, with the exact same conditions as above, a program I wrote to allocate
all of the free memory (to verify this problem) by starting with 512K
chunks and giving up when it can no longer allocates 1K chunks quits after
only allocating 515K! The program succesfully allocates ALL of the free
memory on every other Amiga I've tried, so I know it's correct. (Besides,
it's _very_ simple.)
Here are the results of avail under the same conditions:
Type Available In-Use Maximum Largest
chip 299032 224200 523232 239600
fast 1564600 263008 1827608 1037080
total 1863632 487208 2350840 1037080
Note that the maximums shown are apparently not including the extra 1.2MB.
I have lost the docs for the board, so I don't know which banks are required
anymore. I have them set up in the current configuration:
Bank 7: #### #### #### ####
Bank 6: #### #### #### ####
Bank 5: ==== ==== ==== ====
Bank 4: #### #### #### ####
Bank 3: #### #### #### ####
Bank 2: #### #### #### ####
Bank 1: ==== ==== ==== ====
Bank 0: #### #### #### ####
The ####'s are chips. The ===='s are empty sockets.
The jumpers are set for Fat Agnus and KS1.3.
If any of you have a BaseBoard, please email me. Even if you can't help, I
need info on where to send for the 'B' PAL so I can add a Fatter Agnus without
fragmenting my Fast RAM.
Sorry for such a long post, but I figured I'd better provide as much info
as possible. PLEASE help me! I don't have a (working) HD yet, so I use a
large RAD. I need this extra RAM!
Thanks!
Greg
---------------Greg-Harp---------------greg@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu----------------
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