Apple II Memory Expansion Card
Ingo Soetebier
I have a memory expansion card, which is labeled "A II Memory Expansion
(c) 1985 Apple Computer". There is also a number on the card:
670-0024-A. The only reference I found with Google is:
http://www2.sunrem.com/sun01.w?pt=220-122
Can somebody tell me in which slot of my Apple IIe should I put the
card? Do I need special software to use the memory on the card?
Ingo
tou...@gmail.com
There was a discussion about this card a couple weeks ago. Look here:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.apple2/browse_thread/thread/f760c6ca5aa8e7f4
Dave
Sean Fahey
Usually, slot 4 but it can go in any slot except slot 3 or, obviously,
the auxilary slot. Fully loaded, it has 1 meg of RAM - which can be used
automatically by later versions of Appleworks to increase desktop size,
and/or as a RAM disk under ProDOS.
Warren Ernst
of this card called the RamFactor card, which I presently have in my
//e.
The neat thing about these Slinky cards (as opposed to the
Super-Extended 80 Column Cards like RamWorks) is that these cards act
like RAM drives by default.
That is, you can copy files, and even ProDOS.SYSTEM and such, to the
ram card and then do a PR#x (where x is the slot number the card is in)
and it will boot like a solid state, super fast "hard drive." If it is
in Slot 7 and there are bootable files in the ram drive, the Apple will
boot from it automatically with an Open Apple - Control - Reset.
The downside is that this ramdrive disappears when the power is turned
off. There are several solutions. Here's what I do/did.
First, I loaded up my 1 MB RamFactor (in Slot 7) with about 900 kb of
files, like AppleWorks/Timeout, ProTerm, Program Writer, and a few
other ProDOS utilities. Then I used ProSel to make a program menu to
select the various programs. Then I used ProSel's backup program to
backup the RamDrive to 4 double-sided floppies, or two 3.5 disks. As I
tweaked and added to the RamDrive, I would make new backup disks.
And then I would leave the Apple on for months and months at a time.
Really. I think my record was 7 months in 1991.
These days, whenever I use the //e with the ramfactor, I still reload
the ramdrive, which takes all of 120 seconds from the pair of UniDisk
3.5 drives. I just turn it off when I'm done.
AppleWorks is smart enough to use any available remaining RAM in these
cards as Desktop Expansion, so I have around 100k in my AW desktop.
That was large enough for any document I created in college or while at
Beagle Bros.
Anyway, I hope this insight proves helpful.
-Warr
mdj
Warren Ernst wrote:
> This is a "Slinky-style" Ram card. Applied Engineering made a version
> of this card called the RamFactor card, which I presently have in my
> //e.
> And then I would leave the Apple on for months and months at a time.
> Really. I think my record was 7 months in 1991.
AE used to sell a "RamCharger" add on that was a power supply plus
battery in a box. You left the power on to the RamCharger box and
therefore never lost any contents. I think a fully populated RamFactor
was 5mb, if you had the add on memory board.
Anyone who had one these days could probably very easily recreate the
RamCharger feature, and it's also probably very simple hack the Apple
Slinky to behave the same way.
Of course these days, the CFFA card basically provides you a Slinky
card, but with flash ram instead, they do however run considerably
slower than Slinky cards from what I understand.
Matt
Henry .a.t.
RAMCharger! That's it! I was trying to remember what it was called. I had
seen some RAMKeepers come up for sale on eBay but they were all for IIgs
boards and not the RAMFactor.
I believe the only thing you need is to connect power to the board and it's
now a NVRAM disk. NV as in Non-Volatile - incase someone didn't know.
Anyone know what the pinouts are for the RAMFactor connector on the end of
the card? It's the 4 pin red connector where the RAMCharger would plug in
to. If I have that then I can finally do some testing without worry of
damaging my board. Some NiMH batteries might just work well.
--
Henry S. Courbis
www.GSE-Reactive.com
Apple II Series Legacy Hardware - Come take a look at what we have to offer!
"mdj" <mdj...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1149214292....@g10g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
Michael J. Mahon
> Hey Matt.
>
> RAMCharger! That's it! I was trying to remember what it was called. I had
> seen some RAMKeepers come up for sale on eBay but they were all for IIgs
> boards and not the RAMFactor.
>
> I believe the only thing you need is to connect power to the board and it's
> now a NVRAM disk. NV as in Non-Volatile - incase someone didn't know.
So the board contains its own refresh clock? (Which it would have to
switch to the Apple clock when operating, to avoid asynchronous messes.)
"Idling DRAM"--an oxymoron.
-michael
Parallel computing for 8-bit Apple II's!
Home page: http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/
"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it is seriously underused."
mdj
Michael J. Mahon wrote:
> So the board contains its own refresh clock? (Which it would have to
> switch to the Apple clock when operating, to avoid asynchronous messes.)
I'd bet no, and there's a clock generator in the RamCharger unit. I
can't think why else it would need 4 pins on the connector - you only
need a 5v source to power the Ram chips
David Wilson
I have a RamFactor in my hands and it has two jumpers joining pins 1-2
and 3-4 on the 4 pin connector. As two of the pins must be +5V and GND
I cannot see how either of the other pins could be clocks.
Warren Ernst
as the genuine Apple-Built Slinky card, which lacks a power plug.
That said, it was my dream in 1989 to own a RamCharger, but I seem to
recall that it was $200 or more (and I was making $7 a hour, 20 hours a
week back then), and the battery looked just like a Disk ][ drive,
complete with a black face. I had a DuoDisk stack.
I am somewhat ashamed to admit that the thought never crossed my mind
to get a "normal" power supply to apply voltage to the RamFactor power
socket. A wall-wart may be just the ticket - I'd still lose the
contents when the power failed (unless I plugged the wall-wart into a
UPS, hmmmm), but at least the contents would remain over time...
I still have my original RamFactor manual. I'll check it out and see if
there are specs for the power plug this weekend.
-Warr
Sean Fahey
> I didn't bother to mention the RamCharger because the original poster
> as the genuine Apple-Built Slinky card, which lacks a power plug.
>
> That said, it was my dream in 1989 to own a RamCharger, but I seem to
> recall that it was $200 or more (and I was making $7 a hour, 20 hours a
> week back then), and the battery looked just like a Disk ][ drive,
> complete with a black face. I had a DuoDisk stack.
I have just provided GSE-Reactive with a RamCharger for examination.
Nothing to it, I'm sure.
It would be nice to have an all internal solution, where the battery
pack resides in the IIe somewhere (under the KB?) and is optionally
recharged by GSE-Reactive's HD power supply - since it has plenty of
molex outputs.
Steven N. Hirsch
> Henry wrote:
>> Hey Matt.
>>
>> RAMCharger! That's it! I was trying to remember what it was called.
>> I had seen some RAMKeepers come up for sale on eBay but they were all
>> for IIgs boards and not the RAMFactor.
>>
>> I believe the only thing you need is to connect power to the board and
>> it's now a NVRAM disk. NV as in Non-Volatile - incase someone didn't
>> know.
>
> So the board contains its own refresh clock? (Which it would have to
> switch to the Apple clock when operating, to avoid asynchronous messes.)
I used to have a RamCharger, but sold it (like a fool) during the early
90's. In my defense, Apple 2 hardware was not worth much in those days.
From what I can recall, there was nothing resembling a clock generator
in the external unit.
Steve
Henry .a.t.
Looking at my RAMFactor the 4 Pin connector is just power and Ground. I'm
just unsure of what voltage would be and didn't want to 'blow up' my card if
I could help it.
Thanks to Sean for the 4 Meg Expansion board and the RAMCharger! Looks like
those two options will soon be making a come back.
I believe the RAMFactor must has some kind of refresh circuit on it. It's
the only thing that makes sense really. Of the 4 pin connector I bet 2 pins
are the charger and 2 are the battery. That way if the power was to go out
or you were to turn off the computer, power would never be interrupted to
the card. At least that's my assumption at this point. The manual didn't
have any information about it really. Just talk about the jumpers.
I'm thinking a few NiMH batteries and a wall-wart for when the computer is
off will do the trick. I'm sure I can make the battery pack 'stackable' so
people can choose how much time they want, although one pack should be good
for days. If you use the computer daily and have it charge when the powers
on then you shouldn't need the wall wart. If you leave the computer off for
days then you will need the wall wart. At least that's how I'll try and
make it. It will be more of a kit actually. All the parts will be sold
separately and you can choose what options you will want. Of course I
always prefer when all the options can fit inside the computer, so I'll try
and make the battery internal.
--
Henry S. Courbis
www.GSE-Reactive.com
Apple II Series Legacy Hardware - Come take a look at what we have to offer!
"Steven N. Hirsch" <shi...@adelphia.net> wrote in message
news:YaqdnW4awf13fR3Z...@adelphia.com...
Scott Alfter
Hash: SHA1
In article <wcKdnUldUPg...@comcast.com>,
Henry <apl2research(.a.t.)comcast.net> top-posted (grr):
>I'm thinking a few NiMH batteries and a wall-wart for when the computer is
>off will do the trick. I'm sure I can make the battery pack 'stackable' so
>people can choose how much time they want, although one pack should be good
>for days. If you use the computer daily and have it charge when the powers
>on then you shouldn't need the wall wart. If you leave the computer off for
>days then you will need the wall wart. At least that's how I'll try and
>make it. It will be more of a kit actually. All the parts will be sold
>separately and you can choose what options you will want. Of course I
>always prefer when all the options can fit inside the computer, so I'll try
>and make the battery internal.
Another possibility if somebody installs one of your upgrade power supplies
is to tap into the +5VSB output. It's powered up whenever the computer is
plugged in, so you can ditch the wall wart. Plugging the computer into a
UPS would get it through most power outages.
_/_
/ v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
(IIGS( http://alfter.us/ Top-posting!
\_^_/ rm -rf /bin/laden >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?
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Sean Fahey
Scott Alfter wrote:
>
> Another possibility if somebody installs one of your upgrade power supplies
> is to tap into the +5VSB output. It's powered up whenever the computer is
> plugged in, so you can ditch the wall wart. Plugging the computer into a
> UPS would get it through most power outages.
Warren Ernst wrote:
> I didn't bother to mention the RamCharger because the original poster
> as the genuine Apple-Built Slinky card, which lacks a power plug.
>
> That said, it was my dream in 1989 to own a RamCharger, but I seem to
> recall that it was $200 or more (and I was making $7 a hour, 20 hours a
> week back then), and the battery looked just like a Disk ][ drive,
> complete with a black face. I had a DuoDisk stack.
Michael J. Mahon
> Hey Guys.
>
> Looking at my RAMFactor the 4 Pin connector is just power and Ground. I'm
> just unsure of what voltage would be and didn't want to 'blow up' my card if
> I could help it.
>
> Thanks to Sean for the 4 Meg Expansion board and the RAMCharger! Looks like
> those two options will soon be making a come back.
>
> I believe the RAMFactor must has some kind of refresh circuit on it. It's
> the only thing that makes sense really. Of the 4 pin connector I bet 2 pins
> are the charger and 2 are the battery. That way if the power was to go out
> or you were to turn off the computer, power would never be interrupted to
> the card. At least that's my assumption at this point. The manual didn't
> have any information about it really. Just talk about the jumpers.
>
> I'm thinking a few NiMH batteries and a wall-wart for when the computer is
> off will do the trick. I'm sure I can make the battery pack 'stackable' so
> people can choose how much time they want, although one pack should be good
> for days. If you use the computer daily and have it charge when the powers
> on then you shouldn't need the wall wart. If you leave the computer off for
> days then you will need the wall wart. At least that's how I'll try and
> make it. It will be more of a kit actually. All the parts will be sold
> separately and you can choose what options you will want. Of course I
> always prefer when all the options can fit inside the computer, so I'll try
> and make the battery internal.
These aren't static RAMs--they burn power all the time.
Remember how warm these RAM cards get?
It will take a sizeable battery (like the original Disk ][-sized one)
to provide moderate battery life.
Put another way, what was the current capacity of the RAMCharger wall
wart?
Henry .a.t.
> Michael J. Mahon
> These aren't static RAMs--they burn power all the time.
> Remember how warm these RAM cards get?
>
> It will take a sizeable battery (like the original Disk ][-sized one)
> to provide moderate battery life.
>
> Put another way, what was the current capacity of the RAMCharger wall
> wart?
Very true. I think it was you who pointed out there's no such thing as an
'idle' DRAM. I'll not quote sure how much power it will take to hold the
card when the computers off but I'll get a rough idea once I start to
understand the layout of the card a little better and start to calculate the
requirements of all the components.
I know with our 200 Power Supply it's technically 'on' all the time and it
could be made to provide power to the board even when the computer is off as
long as it's still plugged in. The issue with that however is you would
need to tap in to the 5v circuit and then my question would be if it has
enough power to do what we want. I don't think it would really. As Scott
mentioned it called the '5v Stand By' supply. On PC's it's just meant to
provide enough power for a few LED's and some low power circuits to turn the
computer fully on. I can't see it being more then one or two hundred
milliamps at most. I'll look in to it though. Good idea guys!
David Wilson
> mentioned it called the '5v Stand By' supply. On PC's it's just meant to
> provide enough power for a few LED's and some low power circuits to turn the
> computer fully on. I can't see it being more then one or two hundred
> milliamps at most. I'll look in to it though. Good idea guys!
The current rating of the +5VSB rail has increased on ATX power
supplies over the years - now they tend to be able to supply one or
even two Amps @ 5V. This is so that Wake On LAN and Wake on Keyboard
functions can work. Some examples from motherboard manuals:
Abit BP6 - requires 720mA to support Wake on LAN, Keyboard or Mouse
ASRock K7VT2 - requires > 2A to support PS/2 or USB wake up events
mdj
David Wilson wrote:
> I have a RamFactor in my hands and it has two jumpers joining pins 1-2
> and 3-4 on the 4 pin connector. As two of the pins must be +5V and GND
> I cannot see how either of the other pins could be clocks.
Interesting... It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to deliver two 5V
lines only to simply join them in parallel though. Perhaps the jumpers
are intended to be removed to provide additional injection points, for
example in the case of a 4mb expander on the card?
I don't see why the battery and mains power would be delivered
seperately either. Seems to be the RamCharger would be nothing more
than a power supply trickle charging a 12V sealed lead acid battery
(what else was available in 1985?) plus a simple power supply circuit
delivering 5V via the battery terminals.
Any modern recreation of the device would be best redesigned using
current battery technology in any case. I seem to recall the RamCharger
housing its battery in a large steel box with the power suppy. The
later RamKeeper board for the IIgs that provided similar functionality
used a Gel-Cel that mounted inside the IIgs case and a simpler
plug-pack style power supply. I seem to recall the advertising at the
time touted the newer batter technology as safer, indicating that the
RamFactor battery had to housed externally as it was reasonably likely
to leak over time.
Wasn't there a Slinky card produced by Cir-Tech that used static ram
plus simple power provision to keep it's contents? The Stat-Disk or
something like that ... ?
Matt
David Wilson
> David Wilson wrote:
>
> > I have a RamFactor in my hands and it has two jumpers joining pins 1-2
> > and 3-4 on the 4 pin connector. As two of the pins must be +5V and GND
> > I cannot see how either of the other pins could be clocks.
>
> Interesting... It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to deliver two 5V
> lines only to simply join them in parallel though. Perhaps the jumpers
> are intended to be removed to provide additional injection points, for
> example in the case of a 4mb expander on the card?
The jumpers are actually on the pins that the RAM Charger would plug
into (they would have to be removed first). Perhaps this is to allow
the RAMCharger to detect when the Apple II is powered up?
> Wasn't there a Slinky card produced by Cir-Tech that used static ram
> plus simple power provision to keep it's contents? The Stat-Disk or
> something like that ... ?
Yes, I remember that. I just pulled out my old A2 Product Catalog from
9/88 and it lists the StatDisk (from CIRTECH without a hyphen). It has
an onboard battery that can run the card for over two months at a time.
The prices were:
128K $209
256K $269
384K $329
512K $389
640K $519
768K $579
896K $639
1M $699
The reason for the jump in price past 512K is that you needed a
piggyback board. This card uses 32Kx8 CMOS static RAM chips - 62256 if
I recall correctly. CIRTECH actually called it the plusDisk, the
StatDisk name is what Open-Apple/A2-Central called it.
Michael J. Mahon
SRAMs would greatly simplify the design, and low power SRAMs
would make battery backup very compact--as in on-card.
Henry .a.t.
> Abit BP6 - requires 720mA to support Wake on LAN, Keyboard or Mouse
> ASRock K7VT2 - requires > 2A to support PS/2 or USB wake up events
Wow! I never would have guessed it could be that much. I'll have to check
the Power Supplys and see what they can do.
Thanks to everyone for the tip!
aiia...@gmail.com
>>Wasn't there a Slinky card produced by Cir-Tech that used static ram
>plus simple power provision to keep it's contents? The Stat-Disk or
>something like that ... ?
Cirtech Plusdisk...
I have two of them... I also have the 512 piggyback, so one of
them can run at 1meg...
I programmed a ton of new software on the robot when I had
it hooked up... left the project for a few weeks, came back and
all my source code was gone... The battery died.
You could configure it to work with Prodos or Dos3.3 as a RAM
drive, as long as the battery didn't die it kept the data.
Cirtech was also rumored to have designed a card that went in
the IIgs and emulated an early macintosh.
Rich
mdj
aiia...@gmail.com wrote:
> Cirtech was also rumored to have designed a card that went in
> the IIgs and emulated an early macintosh.
I remember that - I also recall wondering how it was they planned to
solve the video issues - the Macs had almost twice the vertical
resolution of a IIgs
Roger Johnstone
>
> aiia...@gmail.com wrote:
>
>> Cirtech was also rumored to have designed a card that went in
>> the IIgs and emulated an early macintosh.
The Duet.
> I remember that - I also recall wondering how it was they planned to
> solve the video issues - the Macs had almost twice the vertical
> resolution of a IIgs
I think that's what really killed it.
--
* Roger Johnstone, Invercargill, New Zealand -> http://roger.geek.nz
* PS/2 Mouse Adapter for vintage Apple II or Mac
* SCART RGB cable for Apple IIGS
Michael J. Mahon
> In <1149654333....@u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com> mdj wrote:
>
>>aiia...@gmail.com wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Cirtech was also rumored to have designed a card that went in
>>>the IIgs and emulated an early macintosh.
>
>
> The Duet.
>
>
>>I remember that - I also recall wondering how it was they planned to
>>solve the video issues - the Macs had almost twice the vertical
>>resolution of a IIgs
>
>
> I think that's what really killed it.
It would have required an interlaced display, and that would have
required longer persistence phosphor monitors, which in turn would
have made for "smeary" cursors and animation.