Conference hydra::amiga_v1

461.0. "SqueezeRam" by LEDS::ACCIARDI () Fri Apr 17 1987 12:14

Got this off of the UseNet... sounds like a good way for cheapskates to
get 1.5 megs of RAM...


Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Path: cunyvm!psuvm.bitnet!psuvax1!burdvax!bpa!cbmvax!rutgers!daemon
Subject: 1Meg Squeeze-Ram
Posted: 6 Apr 87 20:21:02 GMT
Organization: 
Xref: psuvax1 comp.sys.amiga:3308
 
From: Thomka.OsbuSouth@Xerox.COM

OK, this past Thursday I got my Squeeze-Ram from Aminetics.  It is
presently being sent out as a kit.  The kit contains a blank,
silk-screened board, 38 chip sockets, capacitors, resistors, header and
socket strips.  Except for having to cut the header and socket strips
into proper lengths it all went together with no problems. (I don't like
the idea of having the option of cutting or distroying those strips to
their various lengths.)
Took my time in assembling the board, which was about three hours.  In
trying to install the board between the motherboard and WCS RAM board, I
found that it can be a bit of a bother to get all the mating (100+) pins
just right, but as long as you are careful it will finally fit.  I found
that using a contact lubricant (like Cramolin) will aid in getting the
pins to fit.
So, the time now came to install the board and turn it on.  Stand back!
. . .
A couple of color changes and finally it stays at yellow!!?
Oh, my gosh! it didn't work!  Well, let's take this out and see what we
can see.  You know ... as many times as I looked over this board and was
careful about putting the thirty-two (41464) memory chips in, I don't
remember seeing this one in backwards before.  GDI!  a memory chip that
has just got to be smoked!  Oh well, I can switch the jumper to the 512k
position and just use half until I can buy another chip.  I might as
well properly install the chip and turn it on to see just what a bad
memory chip symptoms are.  Power on.  IT WORKS!?!
Well, if that don't beat all.
So now I can tell you that it is a real nice feeling to see in excess of
1.5M displayed up on the available memory line.
Why is it in excess of 1.5M?  I also have the CMI KickStart Eliminator
installed (puts KickStart in ROM) which then frees up the otherwise
unavailable 256k of WCS RAM for your own use.  So after the workbench is
up and running, and even after having a second drive installed I still
see over 1700000 in the memory display.  (If you figure it out 1.75M =
1835008 bytes.)
[I was curious to see how many Demo boxes I can get running at once.
Got 3 "Lines" and 1 "Spots" (both require "Chip Memory", "Lines requires
126k of chip memory!)  14 "Boxes" and over 44 "Dots" going, and then I
got tired of opening more things.  And then I still had over 600k left!
Not a realistice test, I was just playing.  But it is interesting to see
over sixty things happening on the screen at once, and it wasn't all
that slow either.  The only really noticible thing was that in it took a
few seconds to get mouse response back between opening a new object and
then moving and resizing the new window.]
The Squeeze-Ram is automatically recognized by Workbenck 1.2, OR if you
are still using 1.1 (why?) you'll have to put in this one line in your
StartUp-Sequence:
    AddMem 0c00000 0cfffff
So, if you're interested in purchasing a Squeeze-Ram board yourself,
call or write:
  Aminetics
  P.O. Box 982-205
  Whittier, CA;  90608
  (213) 698-6170
The board, a disk that has a couple of utilities, and all components
except the memory chips sell for $119.95.  You can install either 16 or
32 memory chips, which would be 0.5 or 1M, respectively.
        Chuck

    Is there any disadvantage to non-self-configuring internal memories?
    There are a couple of companies over here that offer something similar
    to .0 but you need to use ADDMEM even for 1.2.
    

Re: .1

The only real problem I see would be with programs that boot and bypass
giving you a CLI or workbench by going straight into the application.
(Several of the games are like this.)  The normal boot procedure would
not recognize the additional memory and the program would not be able
to use it.  If the game had additional features if you had more memory,
or requires more that 512K to run, you would lose.  I don't know of any
programs in this category.

Also, programs that are on a protected disk but boot normally to give you a
CLI or workbench would be a bother.  Usually, it is heavily advised that
you not write to a protected disk.  (Disk protection schemes usually
rely on giving you a corrupted disk that just happens to work.  Writing
to the disk could increase the corruption to the point that the disk
is unreadable.)  You could not modify the startup-sequence of such a disk,
and thus would have to give the ADDMEM command manually after booting.