Subject: RE: 4M expanded memory cards

From: [email-masked] (DAVID L. ORMAND)
Date: Wed Mar 19 22:12:34 2003

>I could sure use some.  Are they the nine-chip sort?

Oops!  I guess this wasn't clear enough.  These are OLD cards, ISA
expanded memory cards for 286es.  Not SIMMs/SIPPs.  I can't really
imagine anyone wanting them, but I thought I'd ask before I toss.

---

From: Robert Borsuk <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu Mar 20 12:20:40 2003

On the talk of memory cards, I have a unique one. Don't know if anyone 
has ever seen one of these:
http://idisk.mac.com/colourfull_creations/Public/micron.jpg

Back when making silicon could be fun. Only 2Meg though, so could be 
off topic. ;)

Rob

Robert Borsuk - [email-masked]
President
Colourfull Creations
http://www.colourfull.com

---

From: "Jeffrey S. Worley" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu Mar 20 13:13:00 2003

I wouldn't toss them quite yet.  There might be another use for them.  I
am imagining hanging one off the isa bus of an Atari or Amiga.  :-)

Regards,

Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: [email-masked] [mailto:[email-masked]]
On Behalf Of DAVID L. ORMAND
Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2003 2:45 PM
To: [email-masked]
Subject: RE: 4M expanded memory cards

---

From: "TeoZ" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu Mar 20 13:13:53 2003

I remeber some brand of memory addon cards were prised back in the 286 era,
Intel Aboveboard comes to mind.

I am looking at an add for one of those suckers in PC Sources, Jan 1991.
2mb to 16mb (using 30 pin simms) Error Detection and correction LIM-EMS 44.0
compatible $395 for 4mb

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ethan Dicks" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2003 10:42 AM
Subject: Re: 4M expanded memory cards

> --- TeoZ <[email-masked]> wrote:
> > I dont think they would work in an Amiga/Atari. Im sure somebody with a
> > AT/286 would want one for the heck of it.
>
> They would work on an Amiga with my GG2 Bus+ and a (user written) driver.
> The card maps ISA memory and I/O space into a 1MB AUTOCONFIG space.
>
> It would be cretinously slow.
>
> -ethan
>
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Jeffrey S. Worley" <[email-masked]>
> > To: <[email-masked]>
> > Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2003 10:24 AM
> > > I wouldn't toss them quite yet.  There might be another use for them.
> > > I am imagining hanging one off the isa bus of an Atari or Amiga.  :-)

---

From: "TeoZ" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu Mar 20 13:16:01 2003

---

From: Ethan Dicks <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu Mar 20 13:16:22 2003

-ethan

---

From: Ethan Dicks <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu Mar 20 13:16:41 2003

--- TeoZ <[email-masked]> wrote:
> I remeber some brand of memory addon cards were prised back in the 286
> era, Intel Aboveboard comes to mind.

Those were definitely "top shelf" in the day.
 
> 2mb to 16mb (using 30 pin simms) Error Detection and correction LIM-EMS
> 44.0 compatible $395 for 4mb

That's *much* cheaper than they would have been, say, in 1986 or 1987...
see if you can find an ad willing to _quote_ prices (most will say
"$CALL")but I remember when the U.S. Dept of Commerce was leveling
dumping charges against Asian DRAM vendors - the on-the-street price of
an ordinary 41256 (256Kx1) went from $3.50 to $17.50, virtually overnight.

But then, I also remember when a later ripple in RAM prices took a 1MB
30-pin parity SIMM from $25 each to $45 each (fortunately for me, I
bought my AMD 386-DX40 + 4MB at the old price - $150 for motherboard
and chip, $100 for the RAM).  1988, IIRC, maybe a little later.

If the boards you are looking at used SIMMs, not DIPs, they are much
later in the evolution of the product.  By then, they would have been
used as a last-gasp upgrade of an old machine; new machines would have
taken SIMMs on the motherboard (and probably wouldn't have had a 286
chip, either ;-)

-ethan

---

From: "TeoZ" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu Mar 20 13:17:16 2003

I remember paying close to $400 for 4 x 4mb 30 pin sims for my 386/40
homebuilt machine so it would scream using windows 3.0.
Funny how memory prices have gone to hell over the last few years.

What was the point of the ISA memory addon boards, people running
windows/286 and OS/2 1.x/2.x?

---

From: "TeoZ" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu Mar 20 13:20:36 2003

Well that depends. I remeber a years or 2 ago 128mb 5v fpm memory dimms for
the mac dropped to $19.99 each from a certain vender and they used to cost
quite a bit more then that.
16mb 30 pin sims dropped to under $10 each
$32mb 72 pin simms are like $7 new some places

Some memory was never in wide scale use like the 128mb EDO ECC dimms I use
in my dual PPro server.

I want a 4mb upgrade for my Apple 4/600 laser printer (its proprietary) and
havnt found any for under $40

PC66/100/133 memory is very cheap these days (but there is alot of buggy
memory around)

The only stuff thats expensive to buy new would be ancient dram chips,
sipps, various VRAM. These same items are cheap used IF you can find them.
I am tempted to cut off a memory chip from an old PCI video card to put it
into my Gravis Ultrasound Max sound card because finding a .5mb chip
anywhere else would be too expensive or hard to find.

If you looking for some newer memory check out www.pricewatch.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "ben franchuk" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2003 12:04 PM
Subject: Re: 4M expanded memory cards

> TeoZ wrote:
> Notice how memory prices still seem to drop only for the new machines
> and not the old ones. Well we can't upgprade your bloat-a-matic 2002
> machine as they do't make the chips for it. Well buy a Vapor-ware 7,
> 2003 machine and well give you a $50 rebate on your next memory upgrade.
> Sigh.

---

From: Ethan Dicks <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri Mar 21 12:18:01 2003

> Funny how memory prices have gone to hell over the last few years.

As someone already pointed out - prices only drop drastically per meg for
new technologies.  For old memory, the price drops slowly, then it rises
a bit once it's old enough to be legacy.  Try and find some largish 30-pin
memory now - it's not the $25-$40/meg it once was, but some places still
get a lot for it (not that they *sell* a lot ;-)

> windows/286 and OS/2 1.x/2.x?

Yes, that and productivity apps that needed more space than 640K
(spreadsheets, CAD packages, etc.) plus games.  There were plenty
of DOS games that needed more than ~500K.

-ethan

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri Mar 21 12:18:39 2003

On Thu, 20 Mar 2003, Ethan Dicks wrote:

> (spreadsheets, CAD packages, etc.) plus games.  There were plenty of DOS
> games that needed more than ~500K.

I have a system for which I once bought an EMS memory board to assist when
SMARTDRV first came out.  I loaded my extra-large cache into EMS and it
made my slow disk scream.  It rocked.

Peace...  Sridhar