A600 fast ram

[MrZammler]

Hi,

I know it's been asked before here, but can anyone tell me what to look for when searching for some pcmcia ram card for the A600? (just want a couple of megs of fast ram).

Or if anyone has something like that for sale, pls let me know.

Edit: Would by any chance a pcmcia adaptor + flashdisk work as fast mem in an A600??

thanks

[adolescent]

No.  The PCMCIA + Flash is only usable as storage, not memory.  For memory you need a SRAM or PSRAM card.  Check eBay, they come up once in a while.  

[MrZammler]

@adolescent

Thanks!!

[Argus]

Speaking of fast ram on the 600, anybody heard about Jens' re-run of the Apollo630???

[BenShep]

I've recently had a bit of a scout around for PCMCIA sram - haven't seen any (which are cheapish) on ebay, current or completed.  Also the online stores which have such cards are all crazily expensive (like $100US for 4MB).

Is there something I am missing here - or is this the expected price?  Also, from what I understand, such RAM has to be battery backed on the card - is this true?

[MrZammler]

And since on the subject:

My A600 ver 37.300 seems to get along a 2.5 6G disk I've installed. Formated a ~300M workbench partition and another 1.2G without any problems. Boots ok from the first one.

HDToolBox read the drive info as being 1.6G so, that might be the limit rumours said the .300 has. So I kept both partitions below that mark. But, it did let me partition the whole drive but I didin't try that.

[Amigaz]

Argus wrote:
Speaking of fast ram on the 600, anybody heard about Jens' re-run of the Apollo630???

Have just heard dead silwnce from Jens Apollo 630 project.  :-(
I'm one of the people on on the list of buyers when the card is done.

[Brian]

Not to be a partypooper but PCMCIA mem isn't exactly fastmem... it's slow as hell, but I guess it's the only other option to a real turboboard clipped over the CPU.

[BenShep]

The only reason why I was considering it, is that it initially seemed like a cheap alternative to an a630.  Not so cheap as I'm finding out.

[adolescent]

@MrZammler

I have a 37.300 with a 2GB HD.  I used the complete disk with no problems.

[adolescent]

@Brian

You have any facts/benchmarks to back this up?

[Brian]

Benchmarks no.. not on me.. speaks from what I've experienced.

The fact is the PCMCIA port is only 16bit and the mem there has to negotiat through the motherboard while the mem on a turboboard is 32bit and much closer connected to the CPU.

[BoogeyMan]

BenShep wrote:
quote:
"Also, from what I understand, such RAM has to be battery backed on the card - is this true? "

No, that's not true. Any PCMCIA SRAM memory card works
as FastRAM without a battery. You only need a battery if you want to backup data on the card and store it away for a certain period.
 :-D

[adolescent]

@Brian

Of course a 32bit processor with 32bit memory is faster than a lowly 7Mhz 68000 and 16bit memory. :-)  I thought you meant was that the PCMCIA RAM is slower than normal FAST RAM (ie. from an A500 or A2000 expansion).

Anybody have those numbers?  (Or something like a SysSpeed module).  Adding the extra FAST RAM makes the system much faster.