From: DJ Vollkasko (DJ_Vollkasko_at_gmx.net)
Date: Thu Oct 20 2005 - 11:02:32 PDT
Subject: [NTLK] 12 Meg Internal Ram Chips [was..Defragging Newton]
From: "John Hay" <OceanCity () mac ! com>
Date: 2005-10-18 12:24:11
> Greg,
>
> Can you please elaborate on this?
I'm not Greg, tho... Anyway, this thing goes back to an idea proposed
by the
wonderful inimitable Mr. PCBMan (of SER-001 and EM300 fame, see
http://www.members.tripod.com/mrpcbman/) here:
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?t=108195465100005&r=1&w=2sparked
another couple threads, e.g.
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?t=108212210100001&r=1&w=2
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?t=108203534100005&r=1&w=2thers,
so you
might want to browse the archive around that timeframe). Besides other
projects of his that occasionally surface (IIRC these are Gear Shifter
and a
special EPROM-board), he's asked in that thread what the Newton plebs
preferred to have in new hardware. AFAIR we'd even held a proper vote on
that, where Internal Bluetooth was a close second (somebody else
currently
working on that, bless 'im!) and the winner was a storage card that
would
add another 8 MB to the internal storage of MP 2x00 Newtons. (Possibly
inspired by some development boards originally made by Apple.)
Hm, maybe somebody could take the time and make a Wiki page about these
things, linking to the threads in NTLK and his website? Would be really
great to have a summary of that to refer to...
(Whining/begging mode on: Hint hint hint -- Newbies can do stuff like
that
ee-zee and help the community, heck, even *I* can do that! And do all
the
time, too! Can't do it all myself, though, so whenever you research a
topic,
you keedz might as well copy some links and text to a Wiki page, see
link
below... W/b mode off.)
> When you say 12 meg internal ram PCB's, exactly how would one connect
> these, possibly through the expansion jack sometimes used for the
> serial
> board thing? ...or would the upgrade entail delicate soldering to
> "replace" what's now soldered into the logic board?
I reckon the idea is to remove the ROM chip, plug in the expansion card
and
plug the ROM chip into a slot on the card.
> Second question, assuming either of the above can be accomplished, then
> what about the Newton operating system recognizing and gracefully
> handling the newly implanted internal ram? Is there any possibility
> that there would be a downside?
NOS per design supposedly fine with max 16 MB internal, above that no
joy.
For why so, see discussions at NTLK. For explanation of difference
between
heap and storage and what could be increased and what not easily and
why and
stuff, see links above.
> If all of the above can are feasible, then there's no reason why we
> couldn't coordinate a massive production run.
...besides the issue that (a) those chips are not commonly available,
(b)
the limited time available to PCBMan, (c) the need for
prefinancing/preordering, and (d) the limited demand (10 pcs? 30 pcs?
100
pcs?).
> I have the business
> expertise to coordinate, manage, finance, and retail at near cost to
> the
> group the chips, if I could partner with a someone who's willing to
> handle the technical side of locating a vendor and specing it all out.
Talk with PCBMan about how far his project has developed, and if you
could
help him. He has the vendor, he has the design, he has the brains and
the
tools. And he has the standing and credibility in the community.
> Email me off list if you are not IC engineeringly challenged by the
> technical side of this simple task, have the know how and the vendor
> connections, I'll handle the business and finance side of it all and
> we'll get the ball running in a matter of weeks.
See above. The only question would be: Is the design finalized, and has
PCBMan the resources to produce at the time -- or else, would
outsourcing to
a shop be a economically and qualitywise acceptable alternative.
> First things first, I'll need to hear from people who can handle the
> former part of the above plan, the technical side that is. You would
> certainly be entitled to be compensated as would I a small fair
> pittance
> financially for the time and effort, the expense of which would be
> spread across the quantity of the number of chips ordered and have
> little impact on the price to our group members. Then if any are left
> over I'll just retail them online at double or triple the cost, etc to
> dump them.
>
> Email me at OceanCity_at_mac.com
Talk to our man David H. the Honorable Mr PCBMan at either
pcbmanservice_at_ix.netcom.com or david.humphreys_at_honeywell.com.
All that said, it'd be very exciting to see this thing happen. And if it
would work out, it might open the door to other brilliant ventures (say
fusing the time-proven SER-001 of Mr PCBMan
http://www.members.tripod.com/mrpcbman/SER-001.htm with the blazing hot
BT-001 by Jake Bordens http://www.allaboutjake.com/newton/bt-001.html to
create BlueSer-001... hmh, delicious... ;=} )...
DJV.
--------------------------------
Read a book. On your Newton. It's good for you.
http://www.stillnewt.org/library
-- This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles: http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
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