DIY RAM EXPANSION

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thorsinclair
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Re: DIY RAM EXPANSION

Post by thorsinclair »

Slightly off topic: when (if) will be available the rom port version of the QL SD which is compatible with the Gold Card? If I can keep my Goldcard I would not need any RAM extension in order to work with QL SD.

;)


prime
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Re: DIY RAM EXPANSION

Post by prime »

What I'm maybe in the process of doing is designing an internal card with 512K that plugs into the CPU socket. Would of course need a wire connecting to DSMCL but that could be done at the edge connector.

Could even have >512K if you could change the value output on the card select lines, that's where Dave's external card comes in handy as it does this to them on the way through....

Cheers.

Phill.


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Dave
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Re: DIY RAM EXPANSION

Post by Dave »

I had a good look at doing one internally and decided the loss of features wasn't worth it. If it were a straight 512K card there's a lot of advantages, but for >512K it causes more problems than it solves.


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schombi
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Re: DIY RAM EXPANSION

Post by schombi »

GoldCard support would be great and it would also solve the memory problem on my QL fitted with the QL-SD. However, there are two other QLs sitting on the shelf ;)


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Dave
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Re: DIY RAM EXPANSION

Post by Dave »

*nods* that's what I'm working towards... The UltraQ will provide GC-like features but at a lower cost.

UltraQ will be approx. 70% the speed of a GC, but will have 2x the memory - 4MB.


tcat
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Re: DIY RAM EXPANSION

Post by tcat »

Hi All,

I am providing other documents and files as Dave suggested, updating my earlier post.
I hope you can follow.

TCAT


Ralf R.

Re: DIY RAM EXPANSION

Post by Ralf R. »

Great. I'll take one.


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Dave
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Re: DIY RAM EXPANSION

Post by Dave »

Someone elsewhere commented that it was nice I might get some competition.

I have mixed feelings about this.

On the one hand, I instinctively feel a little unnerved by the idea that my main fundraising project to develop UltraQ could be challenged but on the other, I don't.

This is a 512K expansion. If anyone makes them in small numbers, the cost will be around £40-45 each, retail. I'll be selling my 896K expansions for £15 more, which would release a lot of 80s 512K expansions onto the market for a lot less. I would sell a few less SuperRAMs, but that's ok. That's more SuperRAMs available to sell with UltimIDE. I also have an advantage of time to market. SuperRAM is now only 3-4 weeks away from shipping.

I encourage any effort to put new hardware out there. There's many new designs I'd like to license or get permission to use for QL2 - a good example being any new compact design that allows a new mouse port and PS2 keyboard. The more there is, the more incentive returning QLers have to actually return, instead of just visiting web pages.

I'm also interested in doing manufacturing and/or assembly for anyone else who is looking at making a run of anything new for the QL. If you have something, and it's ready to go, contact me and we can see what options there are for me to help you get it out. The same goes for software...


Paul
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Re: DIY RAM EXPANSION

Post by Paul »

thorsinclair wrote:Slightly off topic: when (if) will be available the rom port version of the QL SD which is compatible with the Gold Card? If I can keep my Goldcard I would not need any RAM extension in order to work with QL SD.

;)
At the moment I am not optimistic.
I am afraid there may be no way of getting it working.
A QL-SD without the need of opening the QL will come, but it wont help Goldcard users.
If its going to come as a ROM Dongle with the need for extra RAM, or wether it will come with 512K for the Extension port is not decided yet.
The ROM dongle is easier and faster to implement, but it needs additional RAM.
The Expansion Port version comes with RAM, and the most important point, it could free the ROM Port so it could enable us to use other interfaces there. The disadvantage is the it requires a lot more time to develop. Any comments on this? If so, we better start a new thread for this. Feel free to do so.

Kind regards
Paul


prime
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Re: DIY RAM EXPANSION

Post by prime »

tcat wrote:Hi All,

I am providing other documents and files as Dave suggested, updating my earlier post.
I hope you can follow.
Would it be possible to have the schematic, in particular what are you doing with the read and write strobes to the RAM (/OE pin 24 and /WE pin 29) ?

Cheers.

Phill.


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