Re: AE RAMKEEPER?

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article markd@remove-me.cc.gatech.edu writes...

>Hi - I'm wondering what the AE RAMKEEPER board does?  It's got a red
>and green LED and two output ports on the back so I'm assuming it's not
>just some sort of RAM drive.  Apparently it's some sort of ROM drive - I can
>check that out from the control panel - but what is a ROM drive?
>Also - any other hints on how to use, set it, etc. would be greatly
>appreciated.
>Thanks.

    Well as others here have mentioned, it is a board that plugs into
the memory expansion slot in the Apple IIgs, and provides you with a
way protect the contents of a RAM Disk after the power is shut off.
It is able to do so by means of a wall-plug adapter that supplies it
with constant power, and a battery pack as an emergency backup should
there be a power blackout (the battery lasts for a couple of hours
once charged. Good enough for most blackouts, unless you happen to
live in Montreal, where 3 million of us lost power for an entire 
_week_ or longer recently, due to ice storms :/).

    It piggybacks up to two memory cards--though considering its
main function is to keep RAM Disks active--your going to want more
than the common 1 MB memory boards out there (unless you plan to
use your IIgs strictly in 8-bit emulation mode). Depending on the
amount of memory you have, you can use it for storing data files
or even creating a GS/OS boot volume. With my own RamKeeper, I
found it often crashed into Monitor upon cold-boot if I set the
Control Panel to 'ROM Disk' as the startup device. I also noticed
it was completely incompatible with the ROM 3, or at least until
you acquired a newer set of PAL/GAL chips.

    In this day and age, the RamKeeper has limited value. It makes
much better sense to purchase a SCSI card and modern SCSI hardrive
as a place to store files and boot from. My RamFAST SCSI with a
4500 RPM Seagate drive is pretty much on par with RAM Disk loading
time. Another thing about the RamKeeper is it's doubtful it is
DMA compatible; plus there was a rumour they would randomly short
out and catch on fire (the reason AE discontinued it suddenly?).

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca