Re: 8 meg ram card.

[Paul Schultz <pschultz@med.wayne.edu>]

On 13 Dec 1996, Mitchell Spector wrote:

> 
>     I've been tempted to do the same, although no one has mentioned
> whether the Sirius RAM card will successfully DMA with  5, 6, 7 or 
> 8 MB of memory on the board. If you must disable DMA in order to use 
> the extra memory, it is simply not worthwhile in my opinion. Reports
> have been that the CV/Sequential board cannot do it, so what about 
> the Alltech board?
> 

I have a Sirius RAM card with 8MB installed. I recently upgraded my
system from a ROM 01 to a ROM 3 and also upgraded from a RAMFAST to
a Apple HS SCSI( yes, in this case it was an upgrade! I had a
SecondSight which would not work on my system. I narrowed it down to
my _Sequential_ RamFAST card. Sequential was no help so I just
bought the Apple HS SCSI card --everything works great now!).

Here are my observations on the Sirius GS RAM card in my hands:

1. The card is full sized and I had to remove the "slot cover" on
   the back of the case in order for it to fit. A minor problem
   but the card certainly could have been made to fit without
   removing the slot cover. (The metal twist on part was getting
   in the way)

2. On the ROM 01 a full 8MB Sirius worked flawlessly.

3. On the ROM 3, the recommended configuration for a maximum
   memory setup is to leave the first SIMM slot empty.
   (1.25 megs on motherboard + 7 megs on Sirius card)
   This caused file copying "problems" in the Finder. Adding a 
   SIMM to the empty slot solved this problem (The SIMM is not
   recognized on the ROM 3 since it is already max'd out at 8.25
   MB).

4. The Sirius with >4MB installed does not work with DMA enabled
   on the Apple HS SCSI card. I don't have solid data for the 
   RamFAST since I sold it before I learned about the cure to the
   empty SIMM slot problem mentioned above. The docs say it does
   do DMA with the RF.

5. The card seems well constructed. It automatically senses the
   amount of memory installed (i.e., no jumpers or DIP switches
   to set). This is a nice touch. But, I would have favored a
   reduction in size instead. Setting jumpers/DIPS on a memory
   card isn't that difficult! 

I had 4 megs of SIMMS laying around so I ordered the 4 meg Sirius.
Overall,  even though I had the problems mentioned above I like
the card.

BTW, having DMA off on the Apple HS SCSI doesn't give any noticeable
performance difference in _real life_ conditions. So, for now I am
leaving the 8 megs installed.

Paul.     

pschultz@med.wayne.edu
Paul Schultz