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

[marvinmiller@hotmail.com (Marvin Miller)]

Hi Wayne, Greg & Ruby;

As greg mentioned, it's a 7MHz/32K ZipGsx 1.02 card.

With regards to the speed of the memory chips, my experience has
always been that the best way to fly is identical (matched) memory
running at the lowest nanosecond rating. Are you saying that there is
a limitation elsewhere in the card that causes it to not take
advantage of faster memory? As far as cooling goes, I'm not too
worried, I have lots of little fans all over the place for my 'Quest
for Speed' !

The issue about memory speed versus cache speed was brought up because
I seem to remember a post about the speeds being important, not the
size, betweeen the cache and the main memory.

I'd really prefer to dig up some of the wide chips if possible. I
don't really want to modify the card in any way other than plug in's
if possible. So, I guess the questions come back to;

Does anyone have a new chip for me?

Is there another limitation on memory speed other than the chip's
actual NS rating that would negate the benefits of faster memory?

The Oscillator I have is rectangular - so it sounds like our
electronics shop should be able to get them. I'll check out the FAQ's
that Ruby mentioned and see what comes up from there as well.

BTW; With regards to these mods, I just want the fastest & tightest
//GS possible. I'd like to see 20Mhz or higher if possible. My
thinking was that memory quality & speed would also be a potential
issue at higher speeds. To me, it's kind of in keeping with having the
fastest machine around, especially including Vancouver ;-))



Best;
Marvin



On Wed, 08 Nov 2000 23:58:46 -0800, Wayne Stewart
<waynes@intergate.bc.ca> wrote:

>
>
>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
>