GVP HC+8 SCSI+RAM Board - upgrade options

[xaccrocheur]

Hi fellow guru amigans

I have this board in a A4K I recently bought (for basically nothing), it seems to work fine as the RAM is showing up, and I attached a SCSI HD that behaves like expected, albeit slowly.

GVP A2000 HC+8 SERIES II REV. II

I need to know if I can upgrade this baby's RAM, knowing for a long time that GVP (R.I.P.) products used to require *custom* memory units, but I'm not sure about what exactly was "GVP RAM", (is'nt that just 60ns SIMM ?)

Currently, all 8 memory slots are full (for a total of 24Mg, but I'm not sure yet), but this is quite weird : 4 of them are half-sized, like cut in half horizontally,  :-o  :-?

#what is this kind of RAM ? I mean the four little units ?

#Is there any chance to find RAM units for this board ?

#What are the options for upping the RAM of a barebones A4000 ? (not using the GVP) please state any potential speed issue, all the gory details :-D

#Can we still purchase 60ns SIMM Nowadays ? Where ?

#I I want to attach a SCSI CD-ROM to this board, are there any tricks that I should know of ? Is this SCSI chain a proper one ? Is it auto-terminated ?

#How can people miss the fact that this machine, now really affordable (I got this one for 170€, w/ a 1960 screen), is what you would dream for an ideal everyday (email, web and writing) computer ? It's beautiful. It will soon work as good as Amigas work.
I love it.

The latter question quite does not need answer. I mean, the less the better sometimes. I'm suddenly thinking that maybe this situation were we Amigans are, could well be for the better... Well, onto the point, thank you all for reading me and a special kudo to all of you who will remember that nasty GVP stuff ; I really need those infos.

And please forgive my crappy English.

Peace

 :python:

pX

[Ilwrath]

Yikes!  You put this card in a 4000, and it worked??  
The GVP Impact series were 16 bit controllers, with 16 bit RAM.  The controller will be reasonably fast on a 4000, but the ram is going to be REALLY SLOW.  (Like designed for a 7mhz 68000, slow...)

It's a Zorro 2 card, and the details for it are listed at Amiga-hardware.com:  GVP Impact Series II 2000 HC+8

There's all the jumpers, but being a 16bit card, you're maxed at 8mb RAM on it.  Sounds like it's already full.  As for the half-sized SIMM modules, later of the 32-pin SIMMS were much smaller than the early ones.  It probably originally had 4 mb on it, and someone upgraded it to 8mb, later.

[xaccrocheur]

Yikes! You put this card in a 4000, and it worked??

yep ! Pretty amazingly. According to the guy who sold the thing to me "the RAM onboard is much faster than the one on the MoBo" but you say the opposite, and I would tend to believe you but yes, it works, both the RAM and the SCSI bus.

There's all the jumpers, but being a 16bit card, you're maxed at 8mb RAM on it.

So should I left it in the Miggy at all ? i mean, about the SCSI controller, I suppose that it will be *slow*, and what I need in this machine is a CD-Rom Drive and a big HD... BTW, It seems to have only ONE IDE bus, thus allowing the connection of only 2 ATAPI periph., Am I correct ?

And my main point reamins : How will I upgrade this machine's RAM ? What are my options ? I'm ready to fork out for some addon

thank you again

pX

[Desmon]

There's all the jumpers, but being a 16bit card, you're maxed at 8mb RAM on it.

So should I left it in the Miggy at all ? i mean, about the SCSI controller, I suppose that it will be *slow*, and what I need in this machine is a CD-Rom Drive and a big HD... BTW, It seems to have only ONE IDE bus, thus allowing the connection of only 2 ATAPI periph., Am I correct ?
[/quote]
It should be SCSI2, which would mean it's capable fo driving 7 SCSI2 devices.

And my main point reamins : How will I upgrade this machine's RAM ? What are my options ? I'm ready to fork out for some addon

thank you again

pX

If it's an A4000, your only options are either a thrid party RAM card, probably only available secondhand (if at all) or installing a third party processor upgrade that'll take fast RAM onboard. the good thing is that most accelerators come with a SCSI controller builtin.

[xaccrocheur]

It should be SCSI2, which would mean it's capable fo driving 7 SCSI2 devices.

nono, I meant the A4K MoBo, this time I'm not talking about the GVP board, but tjust about the IDE bus of the 4000

If it's an A4000, your only options are either a thrid party RAM card, probably only available secondhand (if at all) or installing a third party processor upgrade that'll take fast RAM onboard. the good thing is that most accelerators come with a SCSI controller builtin.

Well, what would be really useful would be a fully documented spec sheet of the A4K, so I'd know its internal/external full capabilities... Any good link on that ?

pX

[Ilwrath]

Well, what would be really useful would be a fully documented spec sheet of the A4K, so I'd know its internal/external full capabilities... Any good link on that ?

Yes, as a matter of fact, Warren Block's Amiga 4000 reference has proven it's immense value to me quite a few times.
Amiga 4000 Hardware Guide 4.2

As for the GVP HC+8, the SCSI controller shouldn't be overly slow.  I'd imagine 1-3MB/sec sustained.  About all the early SCSI HD's could do, anyhow.  I'd expect it to perform adequately for CD ROM and HD access (though not really a speed benefit over the on-board IDE - but SCSI CDs are much more reliable than ATAPI CDs on the Amiga's IDE chain.)

The RAM on board that card will be much slower than RAM on the motherboard of the machine.  (Which, in turn, is much slower than RAM on a dedicated accelerator card in an A4000 -- the person that told you the RAM on the GVP would be fastest may have thought you had a GVP accelerator card, instead of the HC+8 card)  If you choose to keep the card in your system, I'd make sure to set that as the last available RAM to the machine.

The GVP Impact series 2 cards were the cream of the crop for the Amiga 500/2000 computers, but the memory speed, especially, is lacking for the Zorro 3 based machines, like the A3000 and A4000.  

The maximum motherboard FastRAM is 16MB on the A4000.  Other choices for adding faster RAM and/or  SCSI to an A4000 include the FastLane Z3 SCSI by Phase5, and the C=4091 (though it has no options for additional FastRAM)  And, of course, the fastest is if you can pick up for cheap a CyberStorm or WarpEngine A4000 accelerator card.  (I have the old-style CS MK2 in my A4000, and I still remember how amazed I was with the speed increase of having a processor card with the FastRAM available sitting a half-inch or so away.)  Plus, most have either built in, or an optional module for a fast SCSI II controller.

[xaccrocheur]

Quite ALL the info I was needing, Ilwrath.

Thank you VERY much.

I was wondering : Is there a place where [color=FF0000]OS3.9 *and* KS3.1 ROMs for A4K[/color][/b] could be ordered from and quickly delivered to France ? I mean, what would be the BEST choice on a reliability basis ?

Bottomline : No matter what it costs, I want the goods delivered, and the faster the better.

Anyway, thank you very big much for the rundown on A4K (this box plain rox) and the precious link.

pX

PS : For all of you who, like me, did not know that one :
http://pocketcalculatorshow.com
That may very well please you. I myself could not leave the boombox museum b4 finishing to read ALL the specs of ALL the machines ! It took me most of last night. Yawn. I mean I found myself as crazy and fetisher as those nerdies. Spooky Oh, and I found My own old never forgotten pseudo-walkman, on witch I discovered beauty by means of ACDC and Joy Division