A600 8Mb fast expansion

[Colani1200]

Great stuff. How much are they populated with 4MB?

[rkauer]

Colani1200 wrote:
Great stuff. How much are they populated with 4MB?

 If you read the guides inside the package, you notice the board doesn't change at all, only the code in CPLD will change.

 So doesn't matter if you choose 4 or 8Mb, the board hardware will still the very same.

[lordv]

The first run of 6 PCBs for old design is ordered, will arrive soon. Also 4 of new (2008 y) boards ordered, I'll assemble one as soon as they arrive.

[1NOM155]

lordv wrote:
The first run of 6 PCBs for old design is ordered, will arrive soon. Also 4 of new (2008 y) boards ordered, I'll assemble one as soon as they arrive.

PM sent

[lordv]

Update on http://lvd.nedopc.com/Projects/a600_8mb/index.html

Now there are 4Mb PCMCIA-friendly firmware as well as 8Mb NON-autoconfiguring one. See READMEs for more information.

[Colani1200]

lordv wrote:
Now there are 4Mb PCMCIA-friendly firmware

Well done! So if I understand the README correctly you can have 8 MB soldered to it but only 4 MB are used, and if you want to use the full 8MB later all you have to do is flash a different firmware?

EDIT: Or even easier: Use the 8 MB non-autoconfig firmware and choose with the addmem command how much to use?  :-o

BTW: What will be the advantage of the 2008 version?

[rkauer]

Colani1200 wrote:

EDIT: Or even easier: Use the 8 MB non-autoconfig firmware and choose with the addmem command how much to use?  :-o

BTW: What will be the advantage of the 2008 version?

 The board is fully auto-config. No way to use ADDmem.

[Colani1200]

@rkauer:

lordv wrote:
Now there are 4Mb PCMCIA-friendly firmware as well as 8Mb NON-autoconfiguring one.

[Crumb]

Would the 8MB-non autoconfig allow you to use addmem to add manually 8MB of fast to the system? Would it allow you to add just 4MB and PCMCIA would still work?

[alexh]

Yes.
No.

[Colani1200]

From the README: :rtfm:

8mb NON-autoconfiguring version.

It is practically useless except for testing memory chips.

[lordv]

The things are simpler than they seem to be

Inside the CPLD there are two independent logic schemes: first controls DRAM (/RAS /CAS, refresh, chip selecting, address multiplexing, etc.), second does autoconfig.

So the amount of memory which physically present is determined by the first part, while the amount found by OS - determined by the second one.

4 and 8Mb differ in first part (for 4Mb, two memory chips are idling all the time) and also by second (4Mb size reported instead of 8Mb).

8Mb non-autoconf in comparison to 8Mb autoconf version, obviously lacks autoconf features =)


New revision will have jumpers to allow you to select 4mb or 8mb, or switch fastmem completely. Also I'm planning trying so-called "slow" memory space (4mb+slow, only slow).
Another improvement is no need to tilt overCPU socket (instead, the board itself is two-level).

[Crumb]

@lordv

wow!

that sounds truly great :-)

I asked about the 8MB non-autoconfig version because as far as I know autoconfig will reserve 4MB for PCMCIA and since that memory will be reserved for it the user won't be able to disable pcmcia make an "addMem" selecting the full 8MB

[tokyoracer]

Sorry for being so late in this topic here but I didn't know this would be in production! Just 1 query, will it work along-side other ram expansions on the trapdoor slot and will it be ok with a PCMCIA CD-Drive?
Finally, what price are we looking at? :-)

[rkauer]

tokyoracer wrote:
Sorry for being so late in this topic here but I didn't know this would be in production! Just 1 query, will it work along-side other ram expansions on the trapdoor slot and will it be ok with a PCMCIA CD-Drive?
Finally, what price are we looking at? :-)

 The expansion on the trapdoor is only 1Mb chip RAM, the project is for up to 8Mb of fast RAM.

 With 8Mb the PCMCIA slot will be disabled. Maybe the next design solve this issue.

[tokyoracer]

No I mean will it work along side my 1Mb expansion?