denny@pnet01.cts.com (Dennis Anderson) (02/25/91)
If Cris Erving reads this message base please respond. I would like to ask you
some questions about the 1 meg memory hack fir the A1000 that you wrote for
Amazing a few years back. If ANYONE knows how I can contact Cris Erving please
let me know. I am trying to find if there are any updated directions or
corrections to the article that was posted in the Amazing (2/1) magazine.
After all it has been a few years since that article was printed and the
process to add the memory may have been refined since then. Any help I can get
from anyone would be greatly apreciated. Is there a newer and better memory
hack???
Dennis Andersondoctorj@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Jeffrey W Davis) (03/02/91)
In article <7718@crash.cts.com> denny@pnet01.cts.com (Dennis Anderson) writes: >If Cris Erving reads this message base please respond. I would like to ask you >some questions about the 1 meg memory hack fir the A1000 that you wrote for >Amazing a few years back. If ANYONE knows how I can contact Cris Erving please >let me know. I am trying to find if there are any updated directions or >corrections to the article that was posted in the Amazing (2/1) magazine. >After all it has been a few years since that article was printed and the >process to add the memory may have been refined since then. Any help I can get >from anyone would be greatly apreciated. Is there a newer and better memory >hack??? > Dennis Anderson I have been using this hack since it was published. There are no compatibility problems with this hack. In fact, with a small patch to the kickstart 1.2 or 1.3 disks (mentioned below) it will behave just as if it were auto-config FAST RAM (For those darn copy protected games!). Included below are my TIPS on building this hack. Although there were no errors in the published article, I think many will find this helpful. ...or at least interesting :-) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A FEW RECOMMENDATIONS ON BUILDING THIS HACK: Do use the 28-gauge wire wrap wire for all connections. This requires very little heat to solder and makes this hack much easier. Don't forget to cut the 4 pins noted in the photo on page 73 or you will wonder why your Amiga no longer works (Don't worry, no damage will result from this). These pins are just connected to ground on the motherboard. NOW for the important tip. In order to make this hack neat and removable without having to hack up 16 RAM chips (That were quite expensive when I did this hack) here's what to do : (Read completely before you begin, SERIOUSLY!) When making the piggyback stack of 2 ram chips that will plug into the sockets that you added to the motherboard RAM DO NOT solder the chips directly together and DO NOT cut pins off the RAM chips. Essentially what I did was to add a gold-augat type socket to the lower chip of the stack WITHOUT the plastic(carrier) part of the socket. This means that you will just be installing the gold pins. Use another socket (with the carrier) to help with your pin alignment. Do not install a pin on pin 16 of the lower socket because we will need room for the CAS signal wires. Do the same thing for the 8 RAM chips on the motherboard, installing 15 augat socket pins leaving pin 16 without. After installing the sockets(sans carriers) in this method, pin 16 on each of the soon-to-be piggybacked chips will need to be bent outward only slightly (Approximately 30 degrees, so that it will not touch any other pins). You can also put small shrink tubing on the CAS lines where they connect to this pin (16). --IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT-- You must shorten the gold augat pins slightly in order to meet the vertical size requirement (which you will still have a little space left). You must cut approximately 1/2 of the narrow part of the gold augat pins off. This will allow you to fully seat the fat part of the pin against the 90 bend on the RAM chip pins. The reason here is to add strength to the pin connection and an uncut augat pin would get in the way of the socket that the chip is plugging into. --END IMPORTANT END IMPORTANT END IMPORTANT END IMPORTANT-- Reasons for doing this : The top RAM chip will only need soldering done on one pin (16). There will be approximately a 1/8" space vertically between each RAM chip of the stack for airflow (they do get WARM). And the RAM chips can be re-used in someother application if the need arises (no soldering to the part of the pins that plug into the socket except for 16). And it looks very sharp! Neatness counts! Or at least it usually does after a few years.... I use the Kickmem program found on Fred Fish disk 224. This was specifically written for this hack and will patch 1.2 and 1.3 Kickstart disks so the memory will appear as autoconfig FAST RAM. (This way you don't need the hardware hack for disabling the memory) I am more than happy to provide people with information about available hacks or projects. Thanks for the response. If you need to contact me, here is the pertinent info. Jeff Davis 5179 West 300 South Russiaville, IN 46979 (317)883-7501 (home) Internet: doctorj@en.ecn.purdue.edu