AE GS-RAM Card Questions - IIgs RAM Card Project

["Henry" <apl2research(.a.t.)comcast.net>]

Hello everyone.

As some of you may know a new IIgs RAM Card has been in the works for a 
while.  I was really working on a bunch of IIe RAM related projects when I 
decided to jump to the IIgs RAM Card project to see if it would help shed 
some light on issues I was having when trying to use more dense RAM then 
normally used on IIe type boards.

Well, after several months of studying all the newer IIgs RAM cards I 
thought I had seen everything.  Then a customer purchased a MicroDrive/Turbo 
card and seemed to have all kinds of issue with GS/OS locking up when they 
used their GS-RAM Card.  After going through my Apple II stash I found I had 
a couple of the cards.  Seems AE made a few different versions of the card 
too.  After studding all the newer style RAM Cards I'm a little surprised 
how complex these 1.5 Meg board are.  Maybe some of you can share a little 
knowledge and shed a little light on a few questions I have.

If you take a look at my Web Server you'll see a few pictures of the GS-RAM 
Cards I have in my possession: 
http://reactivecomputers.gotdns.com/GS-RAM%20Card/ The pictures are about 4 
Megs each so they may take a little time to download.  Seems AE produced at 
least two versions of the board.  One is Revision A and one is E.  My 
Revision A board has a date of 1986 stamped on it so I assume it was 
originally designed for use in the ROM0 and is quite 'simple' logically 
speaking, or at least compared to the other board.  The Revision E board has 
a date of 1988 stamped on it so I assume it based on specs for the ROM3 
which was released in August 1989.  I also included a copy of BitBanger in 
the directory of my Web Server.  I've been using that program to do most of 
my testing.


I ask if you own a GS-RAM Card please compare your cards to my pictures. 
Let me know if you see anything different, layout for example.  I'm also 
interested in the codes AE stamped on the TIBPAL (Revision A) or GALs 
(Revision E).  The TIBPAL is located on the top right of the Revision A 
Card, and the GALs (two of them) are located just above the Slot Edge 
Connector and have either a label or white writing stamped on them of the 
Revision E Card.  Yes, I was able to read all of them so if I find that one 
of the GAL's fixes some bugs for the GS-RAM Card I'll post the upgrade GAL 
in the Store.  The code is always available from my Server: 
http://reactivecomputers.gotdns.com/ROM%20&%20JEDEC/

I believe my TIBPAL (Revision A card) says 'GSRMB-M' stamped on it.  My GALs 
(Revision E card) have 'GSE2B-I' and 'GSE1A-Q' stamped on them.  I'd be 
interested to see what others may have stamped on them.  A good scan or 
picture of your cards would also be helpful to me too.  Email at will.  From 
what I know about AE's numbering scheme the 'GSE2B-I' is the second revision 
of that particular GAL, which was probably a bug fix or for something 
specific for the ROM3.

Doing a little testing I found that the Revision A Card crashes quite often 
on either a ROM1 or ROM3.  It doesn't even make it all the way though 
testing with BitBanger most of the time.  On a ROM3 BitBanger can't seem to 
identify the memory size it's supposed to test.  It does identify the 
correct size on a ROM1 however.

The Revision E Card works just fine on a ROM3.  On a ROM1 BitBanger can't 
identify the memory size it's supposed to test, but at least it doesn't 
crash.

If anyone has another RAM Testing program please let me know where to find 
it or email me a ShrinkIt image.  I'm not much of a programmer, so if anyone 
has any information on how BitBanger identifies how much RAM is installed in 
the Auxiliary Slot and why it can't seem to find the amount of RAM of some 
IIgs RAM Cards your help would also be appreciated.


I look forward to reading everyone's responses.


-- 
Henry S. Courbis
www.GSE-Reactive.com
Legacy Hardware and Support - Come take a look at what we have to offer!