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Re: Looking for Dr. John Matthews - Referance to Ohio Kache Systems Multi-Kache Card

James Noyes wrote:


Don't know if it's of much help, but I actually possess a *working* OKS
Multi-Kache, and I have the original side-stapled manual as well.  I don't
recall if there was a disk of software, but if there was, I should have
it tucked away, too.


James,
What clock speed does yours run at? They were made in 8 and 10 Mhz. flavors. Take a look at the crystal can to the left of the slot connector. If it's a 16Mhz. part, the board runs at 8. If 20, then the board is running at 10.
If you have a factory 10Mhz. card, I'd be very interested in getting pictures of the front and back to see how it's configured and where any EC wires might go. 

If you have an 8Mhz. card, I'd be interested in getting copies of both ROMs.


To this day I kick myself for how the deal went down when I bought it,
though. The seller had the SCSI add-on board with it, but I was *very*
strapped for cash, and had already purchased a RamFast SCSI, so I patently
refused to pay him the additional money he wanted for the SCSI
daughterboard, and I didn't get it. Somewhere out there, there's a SCSI
daughterboard with no OKS MK to go with it.
<*kicks self yet again*>
We all have those Arrrgghggh! things lurking in the past. I let one of the original OKS Kache cards (hard disk only) slip out of my fingers along the years. Talk about rare!
Other high points (or low, depending upon your point of view): Lost possession of a working Lisa 2 when I abandoned it to a creditor thinking it had no value. Sold a Needham's Apple 2 EPROM programmer because I wasn't using it. Sort of besides the point, as it's rare and collectible. 


As for the board, while it has some quirks in how it works, and takes a
little getting used to, it was quite the perfect touch to complete my
"Ultimate //e".  It will run regular Disk II drives, Unidisk 3.5 drives,
and Apple 3.5 Drives, all from a single slot - which was important for me.
The caching features were very cool to work with, and SUBSTANTIALLY
changed operational speeds on disk access. It even had a "legacy" mode
that would allow it to act as a sort of a dumb Disk II Controller
pass-through, in case you had a piece of software that didn't play well
with the acceleration/caching features.
Yes, when mine worked reliably it was VERY cool. I think upgrading the board to 10Mhz. was a mistake. Given the symptoms, I think the memory timing is out of the envelope and I'm planning to convert it back to the slower speed. 

Steve