Re: Upgrading a IIgs

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

In article pubpc1@library.ucla.edu writes...

>For the record, I have seen _zero_ reports of the RamFAST rev. D
>having DMA compatibility problems at 8MB.  It was specifically
>designed to DMA into all memory cards.  The older, larger, RamFAST
>rev. C will have problems at 8MB.  Luckily Sequential only sells
>the rev. D card now.

    I saw some reports about it failing DMA compatibility with an
Apple High-Speed SCSI card (despite the fact Alltech claiming the
contrary) and I thought I saw someone say it had DMA problems with
the RamFAST SCSI as well. Someone should check Dejanews to verify
that, it was only about a year ago the reports were posted.

    In any case, I would advise caution against any board claiming
to bypass the 4 MB DMA limit impossed by the IIgs, few if any have
ever done it successfully.

>No size limit as far as I know.  Just be careful of some models that
>require the controller have an SCSI ID.  Those won't work.  You will
>probably want to _test_ the drive first (so make sure they have a
>money back guarantee).  500MB will work easily, since people have
>connected GB models.

    Actually I heard that the RamFAST has trouble with _single_ devices
that are 1 gigabyte or larger, however not with multiple devices that
equal the same size. For example, a 1 GB hardrive might not work, but
a pair of 500 MB hardrives daisy-chained will have no problems.

    Generally that is not a problem though, there are few people who 
need that much storage on an Apple IIgs. Something in the range of 
200-300 MB is quite comfortable (and often very affordable too, not
too mention avoids the need for depending on HFS partitions).

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca