Re: Chips & Processors & Oscillators and other Go Fast Goodies?

[Wayne Stewart <waynes@intergate.bc.ca>]

Marvin Miller wrote:

> Hi Folks;
>
> My ZipGs arrived today as did my Applied Engineering Memory card. They
> look great and came with manuals and everything! (thanks Greg B.!!)
>
> Some questions;
>
> Can you still get the little memory chips for the GS Ram + ? I was
> thinking that they are probably dirt cheap and the fact that memory
> has come so far in recent years - that they would be much, much
> faster. So, I was tossing around the idea of replacing 'em all for
> latest & greatest.

Alltech likely still carries them. Replace them? Unless you're
experiencing problems replacing them would do nothing useful.
If you're thinking faster RAM then that'd be a mistake. The memories
accessed at one speed and all chips faster than necessary do is
generate more heat, which is something you don't need.

> Also, I'd like to upgrade both the cache and the oscillator on the
> ZipGs. The oscillator just pulls in & out and has 4 little feet on
> each corner.

Hopefully it's the rectangular as opposed to the square oscillator.
Rectangular ones seem to be much more common, at least here
in Vancouver

> I understand that there is some issues as to whether you
> have narrow or wide cache chips- mine are pretty wide and there's only
> two, although there are two empty sockets next to it. I suspect the
> 64k chips go there. Where to get these great items?

The issue is that it's just about impossible to find fast wide cache.
I lucked out and found some fast used ones at a surplus electronics
store.
If you only have two cache chips then you either have 8k or 32k
cache.


> Further, from my reading you should replace the processor with an
> newer speed rated one. Anyone have one for me?

It's a lot more important with the TranswarpGS. If you an 7mhz
processor, you definitely need a replacement but if you have an
8mhz your not in any urgent need of a replacement. My ZipGS
toped out at 15mhz so I bought a faster processor, didn't make
any difference whatsoever.

> Lastly, I remember seeing somewhere that if there is a large
> discrepancy between the accelerator's cache and the system memory
> there could be problems. I don't recall the specifics - but if it
> sounds like I'm in danger, please let me know.

There's no relationship whatsoever. The ZipGS is a caching accellerator
and doesn't care how much memory is in the computer. There'll always
be a huge discrepabcy between your cache size and memory size

It'd be helpfull if you mentioned what the processor speed is and the
speed
and size of the cache.

> PS> I plan to try for the speediest //GS on the block, I figure modern
> memory chips etc would help.

If it includes Vancouver, I may have to get serious about getting a
stable
16mhz :-)

    Wayne