Re: IIgs RAM cards, which one?

[m.kelsey@spam.eecs.wsu.edu]

In article <28APR199822581516@vax2.concordia.ca>,
	spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector) writes:
> In article rubywand@swbell.net writes...
> 
>>Mitchell Spector writes ...
>>>

>     Well in order to get around the 4 MB DMA limit (note that the
> limit is _only_ the expansion slot, motherboard memory is excluded)
> you need a RamFAST SCSI card. You also need an 8 MB expansion card
> that does DMA properly, and to my knowledge, that only includes the
> two currently available cards (I'd be surprised if you could use a
> MDIdeas OctoRAM in this situtation).

What about the Applied Engineering GS RAM expander? 

>>     Owners of current 8MB cards, including at least one using a current
>>RamFAST, have reported difficulties with copying large file blocks
>>(>800k) to Zip drive. Do you know anything about this?
> 
>     Sounds like problems with DMA, especially if disabling DMA on
> the RamFAST SCSI eliminates the problem.

I copied some rather large files, in excess of 8MB from CD-ROM as a test
and didn't run into any problems.  I performed the operation several times
but I must admit I haven't tried copying anything to a ZIP drive.

This may be an issue of my ROM 01 IIgs, though.  It has 5MB total and
I'm guessing that as stock it came with 256K.  Perhaps the upper 768K
isn't being used except for the system.

>     No idea, I've never seen one before (unless it's an OEM version of
> a previously made 4 MB card). There were many different memory boards
> put out on the market, but not all of them were fully DMA (e.g. Applied
> Engineering was notorious for selling flakey RAM boards, despite claims
> about full DMA compatibility with the GS). At US$100, I'd say avoid it.

Hearing that about AE is not something I wanted to know (consciously).
Ugh.  I guess I won't be adding any more memory to it! :P

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