Re: Apple II Memory Expansion Card

["Warren Ernst" <wernst@gmail.com>]

This is a "Slinky-style" Ram card. Applied Engineering made a version
of this card called the RamFactor card, which I presently have in my
//e.

The neat thing about these Slinky cards (as opposed to the
Super-Extended 80 Column Cards like RamWorks) is that these cards act
like RAM drives by default.

That is, you can copy files, and even ProDOS.SYSTEM and such, to the
ram card and then do a PR#x (where x is the slot number the card is in)
and it will boot like a solid state, super fast "hard drive." If it is
in Slot 7 and there are bootable files in the ram drive, the Apple will
boot from it automatically with an Open Apple - Control - Reset.

The downside is that this ramdrive disappears when the power is turned
off. There are several solutions. Here's what I do/did.

First, I loaded up my 1 MB RamFactor (in Slot 7) with about 900 kb of
files, like AppleWorks/Timeout, ProTerm, Program Writer, and a few
other ProDOS utilities. Then I used ProSel to make a program menu to
select the various programs. Then I used ProSel's backup program to
backup the RamDrive to 4 double-sided floppies, or two 3.5 disks. As I
tweaked and added to the RamDrive, I would make new backup disks.

And then I would leave the Apple on for months and months at a time.
Really. I think my record was 7 months in 1991.

These days, whenever I use the //e with the ramfactor, I still reload
the ramdrive, which takes all of 120 seconds from the pair of UniDisk
3.5 drives. I just turn it off when I'm done.

AppleWorks is smart enough to use any available remaining RAM in these
cards as Desktop Expansion, so I have around 100k in my AW desktop.
That was large enough for any document I created in college or while at
Beagle Bros.

Anyway, I hope this insight proves helpful.

-Warr

Sean Fahey wrote:

> Usually, slot 4 but it can go in any slot except slot 3 or, obviously,
> the auxilary slot. Fully loaded, it has 1 meg of RAM - which can be used
> automatically by later versions of Appleworks to increase desktop size,
> and/or as a RAM disk under ProDOS.