Conference hydra::amiga_v1

154.0. "$72.00 1 Meg Hack!" by JAKE::ACCIARDI () Tue Nov 04 1986 12:35

    Last nite I downloaded instructions from Plink on how to build a
    hacker's 1 meg board.  (Actually, an additional 512 k, for a total
    of 1 meg).  The job is not for the faint of heart, and involves
    piggybacking RAM chips onto the Amiga motherboard, ala the ST hacks.
    
    The parts for the job will run around $72.00, labor around 4 hours.
    I have spoken to people who have this mod running, and they claim
    that it works swell, although the memory will not auto-config, as
    it is located in the Amiga's 'Hidden' two-megabyte ram area.
    
    The article claims that this in neither 'chip' nor 'fast' memory,
    but 'ADDMEM' will get dos to configure it as 'fast' memory.  This
    is because CBM chose to allocate up to 2 megs for chip memory, then
    left out the necessary lines.  (No, I don't know why).
    
    I believe that this article will appear in a future Amazing Computing
    article, but for those who just can't wait, I can upload it here.
    There are also some schematics viewable thru Aegis Draw, but they
    are really not necessary to do the job.
    
    If anyone is interested, just reply and I'll UL the article on 11/5.
    
    By the way, I am mulling over in my mind whether to try this hack
    myself, or wait for the 1 meg internal board from Intercomputing.
    I have my Junior Solderers Merit Badge, but I shudder at the thought
    of melting my beautiful spanish girlfriend.

    interesting, yes - please upload the article.  I know a hardware
    type who did a ST upgrade successfully, been trying to convince
    him to consider doing Amiga upgrades.
    
    re: "Hidden" memory - according to various news reports, the folks
    at Amiga have versions of the graphics chips which support up to
    2 Meg "chip" memory instead of the current 512K.
    
    Hmmm... add the 1.5 Meg now to get to the 2 Meg limit, then run
    the missing address lines to the new graphics chips when they
    become available... enough to make you willing to run ADDMEM instead
    of wanting auto-config.
        
    -dave

    As to the new custom chip set, they indeed will recognize 2 megs,
    but for Amiga 1000 owners, the new chips will not be available as
    a plug-in, because the lines just don't exist on the motherboard.
    This is not to say that we are going to be incompatible with future
    Amigas; we are...but CBM would need to spin a new motherboard for
    an upgrade to the Amiga 1000.
    
    This possibility has not been ruled out.  BTW, 512K of chip memory
    is actually quite a bit, as I have had four of Dave Wecker's
    ray-tracings (which I have converted to IFF format) displayed at
    once, on different screens.  At present, I don't know of any
    applications that are limited by chip memory, correct me if I am
    wrong.  With external 'fast' memory, Aegis Draw can open up more
    windows than I would ever be able to keep track of.