Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: Painkiller on January 15, 2009, 12:04:38 PM
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???
I'm a bit confused.
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You cannot. 128Mbytes is the maximum the CSPPC can take.
If you need more RAM the only option is to buy a Zorro board with memory such as a DKB3128, Fastlane etc.
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yup, 128Mb is the address space assigned in the amiga's memory map for CPU slot devices. so your stuck with that i'm afraid.
otherwise you're looking at Zorro3 devices like the above
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why more? u need it for OS4?
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@ darksun
this is only true of big box amiga?
as you can have 256mb on the blizzard 030 IV
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Only the 2/3/4000 series have a CPU slot - the others have multi-purpose expansion buses. The 128MB limit is in the CPU slot.
To be fair, though, I can't imagine the designers thought people would still be using the latest versions of AmigaOS on their A4000s in 2009! 128MB was a ludicrous amount when the A4000 was designed.
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spirantho wrote:
To be fair, though, I can't imagine the designers thought people would still be using the latest versions of AmigaOS on their A4000s in 2009! 128MB was a ludicrous amount when the A4000 was designed.
Just to add, back in the days of these cards, a 4Mb 72pin simm cost £160.00. 8mb ones were more than double this, 16Mb went higher still than a doubled up 8mb simm & 32Mb ones....!!! - It was a second Mortgage Job! :-o
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I'm actually asking because I have four 128MB simms in my closet that are still working. Are there PCI busboards that could be populated with these?
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There is no DMA on most PCI bus boards between the host CPU and PCI and so if there were any RAM cards they (AFAIK) would not be supported.
Plus all most PCI RAM cards use DIMMS and the are not RAM but virtual RAM drives.
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http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/mediator4000
4 GB continuous PCI memory space accessed through the 512 MB window in the Zorro III address space
So what does this mean? What memory board is best suited for me if I want to populate it with four 128MB simms so that I would get 512MBs of RAM in A4000?
@Alexh
I not asking for a PCI RAM card, I'm actaully asking for a busboard to have simms slots that I could populate, but I gues suchs thing doesn't exist :( But anyways I'm willing to get anything that works...
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You cannot get a PCI card which takes SIMMS
You cannot get a busboard which takes SIMMS
All you can get is a DKB3128 (http://bboah.com/cgi-bin/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=989) which can take 8 * 16Mbyte 72-pin SIMMS (128Mbytes) or a Fastlane (http://bboah.com/cgi-bin/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=1231) which can take 16 * 4MB 30-pin SIMMS (64Mbytes)
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What PCI memory cards are there that work with A4000 as a memory expansion (doesn't really matter what type of memory they use)?
What busboards can take 4x128MB 72pin SIMMs?
I don't see DKB3128 or Fastlane supporting 128MB simms :(
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I think Alex was assuming by simms he meant EDO or fastpage ram
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Painkiller wrote:
What PCI memory cards are there that work with A4000 as a memory expansion
None.
Painkiller wrote:
What busboards can take 4x128MB 72pin SIMMs?
None.
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Uhh I must be really tired... First I read that you said you can get :) silly me.
So there is actually no way for me to take use of these babies in any way with A4000 :(
(http://personal.inet.fi/koti/painkiller/128mbsimm.JPG)
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So that being said what is the max amount of ram a big box Amiga can hold? with memory slot expansion and Zorro board memory cards..even with several
Fastlanes..etc.
Just curious
Rich
ny
alexh wrote:
You cannot. 128Mbytes is the maximum the CSPPC can take.
If you need more RAM the only option is to buy a Zorro board with memory such as a DKB3128, Fastlane etc.
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Vlabguy1 wrote:
So that being said what is the max amount of ram a big box Amiga can hold? with memory slot expansion and Zorro board memory cards..even with several Fastlanes..etc.
I've got a CSMK3 with 128MB and a DKB3128 with 128MB, so 256 in total, but I've heard somewhere that some guy tried three DKB boards, so that's at least 500+MB.
IIRC the total RAM address space (or whatever it's called) on an A4000 is 2GB (could be 4GB, I'm not sure), but you just don't have enough Zorro slots to fill them up to 2GB.
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Be warned, OS4 doesn't boot completely if you have a Z3 Fastlane in your machine "been there, done that" :-)
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Are they not converters for simm to edo
or did I dream that ?
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alexh wrote:
There is no DMA on most PCI bus boards between the host CPU and PCI and so if there were any RAM cards they (AFAIK) would not be supported.
There is no DMA between the host CPU and anything.
In theory, you could use the frame buffer RAM of a PCI video card as system memory, as long as you weren't using it for video too. You'd have to write code to initialize the RAM controller on the card and AddMem the RAM to let the system know it was there.
Not really practical, but it could be done.
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Yeah, used my Merlin Z3 card like that - to increase the sampling buffer for a Maestro.
For OS4 you can only use accelerator RAM, no Z2, no Z3 or whatever card RAM.
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mongo wrote:
alexh wrote:
There is no DMA on most PCI bus boards between the host CPU and PCI
There is no DMA between the host CPU and anything.
You are of course right. I am thinking about a different issue which is that non of the PCI bridge boards are Zorro III DMA masters, which has nothing to do with RAM.
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Cool..your system must be pretty zippy then..as well as being able to have many programs running.
Rich
ny
mmm..can someone make a PCI memory card..
McVenco wrote:
I've got a CSMK3 with 128MB and a DKB3128 with 128MB, so 256 in total, but I've heard somewhere that some guy tried three DKB boards, so that's at least 500+MB.
IIRC the total RAM address space (or whatever it's called) on an A4000 is 2GB (could be 4GB, I'm not sure), but you just don't have enough Zorro slots to fill them up to 2GB.
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Vlabguy1 wrote:
mmm..can someone make a PCI memory card..
$2k and it's yours.
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erm, right, wow this thread fills up fast!
a3/4k machines are limited to 128MB for the cpu slot.
i'm not sure if there is a zorro3 limit of 1.76GB or 2GB or if its the full fat 4GB (minus system board devices) i could look it up, but its friday and i'm actively being lazy.
the A1200 is able to take more than 128Mb as it doesn't have to map out xGB for zorro3 space, so all the 4Gb memory space above the standard amiga devices area is free for use. hence you can have 256Mb ram on a blizzard030.
same for the A500/600/CD32 when fitted with relevent accelerators - but these only had one simm slot so only 128Mb is possible.
not sure about the A2000. as that doesn't have to worry about zorro3 space. but then you just have to get over the possible issue that the memory controller logic on the accelerator might not understand more than 128Mb.
so some 060 based A2000 accelerator with standard 72pin simm slots would be your best bet.
in theory, each zorro3 slot can take up to 512Mb address space (possible ram). i've been thinking on brewing a zorro3-to-DDR1 dimm card. obviously it'll be no faster than whatever Zorro3 can drive it at, but its the capacity that would be nice. however, someone has already experimented with 3 DKB128 cards, and a fully loaded accelerator giving 512Mb ram. but it seems there was a bug found in exec which limits addressable _system memory_ to 384Mb. not saying that you can't have anything else in there too eating up address space, just seems the system can't understand more actual RAM than that.
--edit--
you may find that designers/manfacturers may have saved money/time/PCB complexity by only running 25/26/27 address lines to the memory controller making the max addressable ram for that board 32/64/128Mb ram. hence why apollo's for 1200's may max out at 32/64Mb.
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darksun9210 wrote:
erm, right, wow this thread fills up fast!
a3/4k machines are limited to 128MB for the cpu slot.
i'm not sure if there is a zorro3 limit of 1.76GB or 2GB or if its the full fat 4GB (minus system board devices) i could look it up, but its friday and i'm actively being lazy.
I think that 1.7 figure is about correct - but may be quite difficult to test...
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i was going by the mediator addressing 1.76Gb of PCI space through a 512MB window. i guess it is the upper 1.76Gb of the 4GB area, so then you have the 1.76Gb of zorro3 space below that, and the bottom 512Mb left for amiga CPU slot and system devices. Meh. rough guess.
friday! happy happy joy joy