How much ram do I have NOW on my A600? - Please Help!

[amiware]

Hello I remember to have almost half meg of graphic memory on A600 and 0 ofother memory.

Now I have bought this item on ebay:http://cgi.ebay.it/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=140237217406&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=004

and I tought to have 1 meg but I see 1706552 of graphic mem and zero again of other memory.

if I type avail I have:

              available     in use     maximum     largest

chip    1701320       394808     2096128     1687336

fast    0                0           0          0

total   1701320       394808     2096128     1687336

now I wonder:

1) why I am still having "zero" of fast memory ?

2) is chip memory the same thing of graphic memory ?

3) what to do to have more fast memory?

4) how much megs do I have now on my Amiga ?

Many thanks

Amiware :rtfm:

[Nostalgiac]

sounds pretty easy. You now have 2mb chip ram (and obv some of it is in use) and no fast ram.

As the A600 came with 1mb chip as standard, sounds like you have a pretty normal setup for an expanded A600

Tom UK

[amiware]

what to do have more fast ram ?

for what is good to have more fast ram ?

[KThunder]

amiware wrote:
what to do have more fast ram ?

for what is good to have more fast ram ?

there are expansions that plug in and give amigas fast ram they are rare for the 600. chip ram is shared with the chipset so the cpu doesnt have exclusive access so it is slow. fast ram is called that because it is not shared. most programs can use fast ram if you have it and run fast when it is in use.
fast fam is possibly one of the most important upgrades for an amiga

[TjLaZer]

The belly slot is for 1MB Chip expantion to bring it up to 2MB Chip. It is NOT for Fast Memory upgrades.  For Fast you need to get a PCMCIA sram card upto 4MB, CPU Accelerator card with Fast RAM support, or one of the just released homebrew RAM expantion cards!

[doctorq]

fast fam is possibly one of the most important upgrades for an amiga

IMO it is THE most important upgrade. Putting a simple Blizzard, which only adds 4 MB fast ram, in an Amiga 1200 speeds up the computer tremendously. It's enough for plenty of WHDLoad gaming :-)

[Tenacious]

I have a 4 MB PCMCIA fast ram expansion.  It makes a difference.  They pop up on e-Bay sometimes.  The 68000 and the PCMCIA slot can address 16-bit fast ram only. You need a 32-bit accelerator with built-in ram slots to get a substantial speed increase.

Wasn't there a hack to use other memory modules in the PCMCIA slot as fast ram?

[Kronos]

doctorq wrote:

fast fam is possibly one of the most important upgrades for an amiga

IMO it is THE most important upgrade. Putting a simple Blizzard, which only adds 4 MB fast ram, in an Amiga 1200 speeds up the computer tremendously. It's enough for plenty of WHDLoad gaming :-)

Well that is true for the A1200, but with an 68000-based Amiga like the A600 one would probraly have a hard time feeling the difference between chip and fast in reallife ...... unless you run your WB in 16 color Hires+overscan that is  :-P

[tokyoracer]

@ TjLaZer, That's tosh, the trapdoor accepts fast RAM too, mine has that.

[countzero]

tokyoracer, that's not possible. don't forget we're talking about A600 here. trap door slot is chip ram only, no possiblity of fast ram.

[alexh]

tokyoracer wrote:
@ TjLaZer, That's tosh, the trapdoor accepts fast RAM too, mine has that.

Actually it's 100% accurate.

[taunusand]

alexh wrote:

tokyoracer wrote:
@ TjLaZer, That's tosh, the trapdoor accepts fast RAM too, mine has that.

Actually it's 100% accurate.

But... How?  :-?
I have 1mb chip expansion in my A600, it would be VERY nice to convert it to fast ram  :-o

[Zac67]

Chip RAM can't be 'converted' to fast RAM - it resides on the chip bus whereas fast resides on the CPU bus. The only (somewhat) cheap way to get fast is to buy a suitable PCMCIA card.

Actually, chipmem can be considered as better than fastmem because the chipset can use it and the expected speed increase with real fast RAM is hardly noticeable (except when you run 3/4 bitplane hires graphic and maybe overscan, as has been noted - 16 colors and severe overscan could slow the machine to a crawl - the like is true for extreme blitter usage).

[KThunder]

guys he has 2 megs of chip ram (1.7 free or so)

he cant get any more regardless of how he adds it

yes chip probably more important than fast if you arent already maxed out already but he is.

he needs fast ram preferably on an accelerator but in the pcmcia slot if neccesary. i dont have a 600 never have probably never will so like probably like many of you i can discuss chip vs fast speed etc but what the guy needs is actual board names to add fast ram to his 600.

[KThunder]

ok acording to several sites ive checked the trapdoor is ONLY for chip ram. you have 2megs you cant use any more

the pcmcia slot is very slow for sram cards, very very slow so what you want is an accelerator card with ram. actually all the ones i saw have fast ram on them or a simm slot


several cards were made including:

the apollo 620 and 630 and the winner 630 from act

the e-matrix 630 and t-630 from M-tec

and the viper 630 from dce

all these require opening up the case and clipping the accelerator ontop of the 68000 smc on the motherboard

all of the trapdoor ram cards specifically state that they add up to 1mig of chip ram