Question about fast-RAM

[Jonathan Brief]

I am intending to buy a board with 4-meg extra fast RAM and a 68882 FPU.
It is to be used on my A1200 that has a HD connected to the PCMCIA slot.

Just a couple of queries.

I want to be sure that the fast-RAM is 32-bit. Is this a safe thing to
assume or should I ask the company. I would do this but I get the feeling
that a sales-person over the phone would not know.

Will this unit in any way affect the way my HD operates.

Any other relevent information would also be appreciated. Thanks in advance,

Jonny

[C.P. Brown]

In article <CxKEC...@westminster.ac.uk>, sd...@westminster.ac.uk (Jonathan Brief) writes:
> I am intending to buy a board with 4-meg extra fast RAM and a 68882 FPU.
> It is to be used on my A1200 that has a HD connected to the PCMCIA slot.
>
> Just a couple of queries.
>
> I want to be sure that the fast-RAM is 32-bit. Is this a safe thing to
> assume or should I ask the company. I would do this but I get the feeling
> that a sales-person over the phone would not know.

If it's in the CPu localbus slot, then I see no reason why it shouldn't be.

>
> Will this unit in any way affect the way my HD operates.

Not at 4MB, it shouldn't touch the PCMCIA slot. On the 68EC020 machine, one can
only safely go upto 6 megs (including CHIP RAM) without messing the PCMCIA about.
With a better cpu, much more is possible. My own setup is a 2 meg CHIP, 4 meg 32
bit FAST, 25 MHz 68882, and 84 meg HD on the internal AT-IDE, and AFAIK the
PCMCIA slot is not touched by any of that.

--
// Chris Brown. finger cpb...@cus.cam.ac.uk for my PGP public key.
\\ // Cambridge University Computer Society discounts officer
\X/ Oxymoron of the year 1994 - Power Macintosh.

[David E J Avery]

: onathan Brief)writes:
:
: > I am intending to buy a board with 4-meg extra fast RAM and a 68882 FPU.

: > It is to be used on my A1200 that has a HD connected to the PCMCIA slot.

: >
: > Will this unit in any way affect the way my HD operates.

It might do!

I had an Amitek Hawk board, early versions of this board disabled the PCMCIA
slot so my Amiga would not boot if anything was plugged into the PCMCIA
slot. I believe some GVP accelerator boards do the same thing.

With the Amitek board I had to send it back to be upgraded.

Providing the board you buy doesn't disable the PCMCIA you will be able
to add up to 4meg fastram on top of the standard 2meg (total 6meg). Any
more than this will not be addressable when the PCMCIA slot is in use.

So be careful that you ask the shop for full details! If you were
considering buying the Amitek board make sure it has the latest version of
the 'PEEL' chip installed.

BTW if anyone has an Amitek Hawk board with the old chip it can be upgraded
for free! Just ask the shop you bought it from or phone Amitek on
081 302 8383.

[ian judge]

David E J Avery (David...@avery.demon.co.uk) wrote:
: : onathan Brief)writes:

: :
: : > I am intending to buy a board with 4-meg extra fast RAM and a 68882 FPU.
: : > It is to be used on my A1200 that has a HD connected to the PCMCIA slot.
: : >
: : > Will this unit in any way affect the way my HD operates.

: It might do!

My A1230 disabled the PCMCIA even though it was supplied with only 1Meg.
I believe that Blizzards do the same.

ian

[Lauri Aalto]

Jonathan Brief (sd...@westminster.ac.uk) wrote:
> I want to be sure that the fast-RAM is 32-bit. Is this a safe thing to
> assume or should I ask the company. I would do this but I get the feeling
> that a sales-person over the phone would not know.

If the fast RAM goes into the trapdoor slot, it's 32 bit.

> Will this unit in any way affect the way my HD operates.

Shouldn't. If it does, just return it.

--
(__) Lauri Aalto
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