RAM 320XE

[576XE]

It's so pity that ctirad say nothing about project.

[Marius]

It's so pity that ctirad say nothing about project.

 

Well... have been waiting for around 30 years for this memory upgrade... I can wait a bit longer

[Mathy]

Hello 130XE

 

Ctirad is working on the RAM 320XE, he has no time to hang around on AtariAge.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

[ctirad]

Hi, I will start another thread for orders and feedback. I know it takes ages, but I have to share my time between my work projects, my hobby projects and my house rebuilding, which is currently the most important thing to me. I have also serious plans about starting an e-shop. I have lot of projects in development and also many ideas for new stuff for either small and big ataris and also for some other platfroms.

[+MrFish]

It's so pity that ctirad say nothing about project.

 

Hi, I will start another thread for orders and feedback. I know it takes ages, but I have to share my time between my work projects, my hobby projects and my house rebuilding, which is currently the most important thing to me. I have also serious plans about starting an e-shop. I have lot of projects in development and also many ideas for new stuff for either small and big ataris and also for some other platfroms.

 

Yeah, give the man some air...

[576XE]

Really good news.

[576XE]

Week ago I got my two new 130XE mobos and my Ataris are revived today

 

Not me but them wants to eat more and more memory!!!

 

We all looking forward for any news...

[Marius]

Did not read the whole thread, but is there a feature to have battery backupped ramdisk?

 

I might be the only one, but I really use that feature in my built-in ramdisk. I like to code (a lot) on my atari 8bit computers and ramdisk is a very fine temp storage place (especially when you keep your harddisk write protected, in case your just created program turns out to be a giant deleter / formatter). But ofcourse during coding my atari does freeze from time to time. With some harddisk interfaces I can do a cold-boot without switing the atari off, but with some harddisk interfaces this feature is not around (well on stock atari's). So in those cases is a battery backuped ramdisk very handy, so switching off the atari, and back on, does not lose ramdisk content.

 

I hope you will consider that. It's one of those great features of the Turbo Freezer 2011. I love that.

[576XE]

Oh, please, ProWizard,

don't ask ctirad about new features.

 

I just wait ONLY plug'n'play mem expander.

And WAIT wait ....

 

Nevertheless, Long live CTIRAD!

[Marius]

Oh, please, ProWizard,

don't ask ctirad about new features.

 

I just wait ONLY plug'n'play mem expander.

And WAIT wait ....

 

Nevertheless, Long live CTIRAD!

 

Perhaps you should change your nickname into 320XE then... as long as you stay 130XE, you'll be cursed to a 130XE

 

But seriously: then you suddenly can order your mem upgrade, and then you order a bunch of them... you use them two or three weeks, and then you realize: hmmm I need more features... or even worse: oops I need a bug fix. It's better to stay calm, and wait till there is really something to be glad with.

 

I really hope there will be a battery backup feature, or ... when that is not possible ... a rather easy way to hack this.

 

On my own SRAM upgrade (inside) I used a special component that is designed for this purpose, so perhaps it is possible to add this to the expansion later by myself?

[576XE]

Yeh! I'll definitely change my nickname!

(When ctirad gives me a chance...)

 

And seriously, I love 1mb upgrade F.E.

(All of us remember DOS times when the memory was the Sangreal of existence!)

but IT POKES IT's DIRTY HANDS into my VIRGIN ATARI !!!

 

No More Fisting!!!

 

I think that external memory giving us another CART/ECI slot can decide battery backup problem.

Just another CART/ECI device.

...

Are you hear me ctirad?

 

Best Wishes friends!

[+Larry]

"The best product that almost was..."

 

(IMO) was the 1 MB ram upgrade from Lotharek. Pull out the cpu and plug it into the ram expansion (barely larger than the cpu itself), then plug the expansion/cpu back into the cpu socket. DONE!

 

I do like the portability of the Ram 320XL module, and presume the 320XE will be even better, but for the simplicity of a 1 MB expansion, Lotharek had a "better mouse trap." And it truly was "solderless" (unless your cpu was soldered in).

 

-Larry

[576XE]

I'm not so skilled in desoldering/soldering like Lotharek.

I even afraid the word 'IRON' when the case is concerned 130XE.

...

And 130XE is my good OLD nickname !

I don't want to be desoldered at all!

[Marius]

The best external memory expansion is for me still the Turbo Freezer 2011, which gives (next to a 512K memory expansion) a plethora of extra extremely powerful and cool features: like freezer, debugger/ML monitor, sdx, rom/ram cartridge (ram is ideal for developing cart). It's an amazing device that Turbo Freezer 2011, and if one atari 8bit item really could use a new production run, then... it is the Turbo Freezer 2011.

 

But Larry is right... that real plug-and-play 1MB expansion is extremely cool too.

[576XE]

Hello ProWizard.

 

I have almost all things you say about in IDE Plus 2.0 and don't have intention to double any of them.

I love this 320XE memext because of it's NOT offering us anything besides additional memory.

 

Sorry but I never heard anything about external plug-and-play 1MB expansion.

Really it's much more preferable of cource.

 

2Ctirad

I want to change my nickname !!!

[Fox-1 / mnx]

I want to change my nickname !!!

 

 

Complete http://atariage.com/forums/store/category/1-subscriptions/ and you can change your name up to 2 times a year

[576XE]

I'm awaiting ctirad to make me 320k memory and then I'l pay for new nickname

[Paul Westphal]

I want one.

[576XE]

320XE = Three Two Ou XE

Sounds like "TritoXe" - King Triton from Disney Little Murmade.

 

Where is my Trident???

[576XE]

Dear ctirad,

Say us a word.

PLEEEEASE!

[Marius]

Dear ctirad,

Say us a word.

PLEEEEASE!

 

I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I seriously think this is not going to motivate him a lot

 

Perhaps you should first change your name...

[576XE]

Hello ProWizard.

 

For more then 30 years I worked with 320XE atari mod.

I realy never thought that I need it. Simply never noticed.

 

Some years ago both my 130XE lost thair extended RAM.

And I bought two new 130XE PALB mobos.

 

Some days ago I tried to run PL65 compiler in IDE Plus 2.0 SDX environment and as I never wanted to use SDX X-Command I wrote config with using ENV,COMEXE and DOSKEY.

 

And of course ran out of memory.

 

It's not enthusiasm It's tears and crying!

[Marius]

Hello ProWizard.

 

For more then 30 years I worked with 320XE atari mod.

I realy never thought that I need it. Simply never noticed.

 

Some years ago both my 130XE lost thair extended RAM.

And I bought two new 130XE PALB mobos.

 

Some days ago I tried to run PL65 compiler in IDE Plus 2.0 SDX environment and as I never wanted to use SDX X-Command I wrote config with using ENV,COMEXE and DOSKEY.

 

And of course ran out of memory.

 

It's not enthusiasm It's tears and crying!

 

Hi!

 

I understand, but then (again) it's perhaps not a good idea to wait forever for this external memory upgrade, and buy yourself something else. Btw. Upgrading 130XE to 320K is not classified as a very difficult job. Only problem is that there is a big chance components needs to be desoldered, which is -if you are not experienced enough- a nasty task, especially on those fragile XE boards.

 

I don't expect this 320XE upgrade before end of 2014.

[576XE]

Seriously some days ago I bought two devices:

First one is TTL(5V)-RS232 Converter and the last one is HLK-RM04 StartKit.

 

It's really WiFi Router/AP/Client. It's other I/O are RS232, UART 3,3V (for using with Arduino (I really not need this)), Ethernet (WAN/LAN as it's router).

Thus being in conjunction, this devices make my Atari WiFi-ed !!!

 

You can imagine that I need this devices MUCH MORE preferable then resoldering Atari.

 

I mean that for clear desoldering of 130XE I need Professional temperature controlled Vacuum Pump!

 

And my choice is that I never shall buy it when I can buy these perfect OutOfTheBox devices.

 

As far as it's concearned desoldering of atari I'm afraid that I CAN do it but I'm afraid!!! and NEVER do something like this.

Edited May 10, 2014 by 130XE

[Marius]

@ctirad

 

You wrote that The Freezer would have same issues as your upgrade with 512K upgrade, since PORT B bits are in conflict with Self Test right?

 

Well I read the part in The Freezer manual a few times over and I believe they found a workaround for that. Perhaps something interesting for you?

 

Here is the part that comes from the manual of the freezer:

 

 

A separate 512k RAM chip is included for the 512k RAM extension. This way the freezer, the cartridge emulation with modules in the freezer RAM, and the RAM extension can be used in parallel to the full extent.

Because the PIA signals are not available on the PBI, the CPLD must mimic the behavior of the PIA registers. The PIA in the Atari keeps working “in parallel”, so BASIC, OS ROM, and Self Test are controlled as usual. Read access to the PIA is ignored by the CPLD, i. e. in this case the Atari reads the real PIA registers as usual. The logic only reacts on write access to the addresses $D301 (PORTB) and $D303 (PBCTL). The CPLD also saves the value of bit 2 of PBCTL, which controls if the access is performed on the data register PORTB (bit 2 = 1) or on the data direction register (bit 2 = 0).

The CPLD stores the data of a write access to $D301 either in the internal data register or in the internal data direction register. If a PIA pin it setup as an input, then pull-up resistors in the Atari pull it “high”. If a PIA pin is setup as an output, then the data register controls if a “low” or a “high” signal is output.

The CPLD emulates exactly this behavior and therefore behaves exactly like every other RAM extension in the Atari. The Oldrunner OS for example sets PORTB up as input because the 400/800 had 4 joystick ports – but no RAM/ROM control via PORTB. This automatically deactivates every RAM extension, because bit 4 of PORTB must be “low” to activate the RAM extension. But the emulated pull-up resistor in the CPLD pulls the pin

“high” automatically in this case, like it would have been the case in the PIA.

The rest of the RAM extension logic is relatively simple. If the “Ramdisk” switch is turned ON and if bit 4 of the emulated PORTB register has the value 0, then the internal memory of the Atari is disabled for every access to $4000...$7FFF and a 16k bank of the 512k RAM extension is mirrored in instead. The bits 2,3,5,6,7 of the emulated PORTB register determine in this case which of the 32 banks of 16k size shall be used.