[Search for users] [Overall Top Noters] [List of all Conferences] [Download this site]

Conference hydra::amiga_v1

Title:AMIGA NOTES
Notice:Join us in the *NEW* conference - HYDRA::AMIGA_V2
Moderator:HYDRA::MOORE
Created:Sat Apr 26 1986
Last Modified:Wed Feb 05 1992
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:5378
Total number of notes:38326

3757.0. "BaseBoard and 500 memory expansion" by RLAV::LITTLE (Just trying to catch up) Tue May 08 1990 03:31

    Has anyone had any experience with a product called BaseBoard from
    Expansion System (or Technology)?  There is a listing in the recent
    ABEL price list that describes this thing a 501 clone that comes with
    0, 512K, 2M, or 4M of memory installed.  The 4M version is only $409!
    Is this thing subject to the same restrictions/problems if any that
    were mentioned for the ProRAM or whatever that 1.8M board was in a
    previous note?  Are there restrictions on the amount of chip RAM I
    could expand to in the future with an obese agnus chip?
    
    Along the same vane.  I have a bunch of 256K 150ns RAMs that I'm
    debating using as expansion memory on my 500.  My question is if the
    above board doesn't pan out, what's the best choice for unpopulated
    add-on memory boards that accept 256K chips?  The ones I'm aware of are
    the Spirit Insider and the Microbotics Starboard II.
    
    I currently have a C-Ltd SCSI-500 host adapter and am concerned about
    interactions and power requirements.  Other than that, I'm looking for
    the cheapest way to get to at least 2M if not 3+ megs.
    
    -tl
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
DateLines
3757.1Called the manufacturerRLAV::LITTLEJust trying to catch upTue May 15 1990 04:5822
    Well I called the manufacturer (Expansion Systems) and spoke to someone
    named Richard who seemed quite knowledgable.  He explained that they
    connect into the Gary chip to get the extra address lines, so you have
    to bend back a tab on the expansion bay's shield to get to the Gary
    board.  The first 1.8 Mbytes works by default and the remaining portion
    sounds like it is in a fixed address space and needs to be addmem'd
    or mergemem'd.  Expansion Systems has tested it with autoconfig hard
    disk controllers that included additional ram and had no problems. As
    for power consumption, they'd also tested a 4 Mbyte board on a 500 with
    2 1010 drives and had no problems using the stock power supply.
    
    The board uses 256K x 4 DRAM's and consumes about the same power as the
    standard A501 (since the 501 uses NMOS and the 256Kx4 chips are CMOS.)
    It includes a clock and supports the fatter agnus chip giving a stock
    500 with a 4 Mbyte Baseboard 1 Mbyte chip RAM and 3.5 Mbyte fast RAM! 
    They said they would match Abel's $377 price for the 4 Mbyte board.
    
    I'm probably going to buy one.  If other people are interested, I will
    check about a quantity discount (although Richard felt that Abel's $377
    price was pretty good.)
    
    -tl