yenzee Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 Hi! I recived the 576K sram extension for the 600XL from Jürgen and installed it - it´s perfect! I had to take out the old 64K extension which I bought back in the days...maybe ´84 or 85´. Because I have not seen this kind of extension anywhere else yet, i will post some pictures of it. I hope, you like it.....oldschool. Greetings from germany, Jens. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 nice one! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xrbrevin Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 5x socket harvest - intriguing... generous groundplane too 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JR> Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 generous groundplane too Makes your chemicals go further 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 Makes your chemicals go further Yup - this was definitely a home etched PCB. Quite cool though! Wonder who CK was(is)? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 Yup - this was definitely a home etched PCB. Quite cool though! Wonder who CK was(is)? looks like the international inspector seal of approval... OK only other thought would be at one time it indicated how many k was on the board.... but I think it's the OK seal of approval. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam242 Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 That's an awful lot of work for what could've been accomplished with two RAM chips and a few pieces of wire. Were 4464s not available then? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 (edited) The 2 RAM chip, 3 wire method is so much cheaper and easier. Edit: You JUST beat me. Edited May 1, 2019 by Kyle22 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 (edited) ah but you can take this one further, just like the 8 chip xl/xe and use 256k chips and stacks them as well... so 64k/128k/192k/320k or 512k without too much more fuss. Edited May 1, 2019 by _The Doctor__ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yenzee Posted May 1, 2019 Author Share Posted May 1, 2019 Yes, it says "OK". I can`t remember if it was a privat person or a proper company, who did this. I just remember that i had to send my 600XL to them and it came back with the expansion built in. ....and it was not cheap. :-) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoestring Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 Reminds me of my old one. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+x=usr(1536) Posted May 2, 2019 Share Posted May 2, 2019 Reminds me of my old one. I'm fairly certain that these memory upgrades were based off of a design that was published in a magazine somewhere - I can remember someone in our users' group building something very similar for their 600XL at one of the meetings. The layouts are different, but the components look to be either identical or close enough as doesn't matter. They're also similar to the one I remember the guy building. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoestring Posted May 2, 2019 Share Posted May 2, 2019 (edited) At least they used good quality RAM chips and not the mT variety we all love so much. I no longer have this board, the OKI branded ram went straight into an 800xl. I'm not sure why they didn't just use the two 4bit DRAMs and 3 wires. The ram upgrade before installing the Antonia 4Mb board. Edited May 2, 2019 by shoestring Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JR> Posted May 2, 2019 Share Posted May 2, 2019 Antonia overrides any RAM or ROM memory on the motherboard, so the 600xl RAM upgrade really isn't necessary with Antonia installed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoestring Posted May 2, 2019 Share Posted May 2, 2019 I didn't have the upgrade at that point yet. So in order to keep using the machine.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nezgar Posted May 2, 2019 Share Posted May 2, 2019 Did 4464 chips exist at the time of these upgrades? If so did they cost significantly more than those PCB's with 8x4164's and supporting logics? Or was the general knowlege of how to adapt 2x4464's to the 600XL just not 'out there' yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoestring Posted May 2, 2019 Share Posted May 2, 2019 Kyle22 showed me this ad from 86 and they look relatively cheap. The two 8 Bit DRAMs are still cheaper based on this ad. I have no way of verifying when the board was made and I'm not sure when 4464s were introduced, so perhaps those were factors. 4416s were in the 600xl in 83, so its highly likely 4464s existed but may have been too expensive to manufacture in large enough quantities at the time. So perhaps availability was the main factor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JR> Posted May 4, 2019 Share Posted May 4, 2019 (edited) I suppose we could assume that the 4464 chips became cost effective around the time that Atari redesigned the 65xe and 130xe to use them. Apparently Atari even sold 64K upgraded 600xls with 8 chip 3rd party expansion boards at one point. Edited May 4, 2019 by JR> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoestring Posted May 4, 2019 Share Posted May 4, 2019 I'd say in 1985 for Apple and Atari. Commodore started using them in 1986. The answer is probably here https://tedium.co/2016/11/24/1988-ram-shortage-history/ After the computer industry slumped in 1985, prices for RAM chips fell to extreme lows. According to an analysis by retired computer science professor John C. McCallum, a 256-kilobit DRAM (dynamic random-access memory) chip being sold in BYTE magazine could be had for just $2.95 in September of 1985—a sharp decline from the $8.95 the same-capacity chip sold for in January of that year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nezgar Posted May 4, 2019 Share Posted May 4, 2019 Apparently Atari even sold 64K upgraded 600xls with 8 chip 3rd party expansion boards at one point. I recall those pre-upgraded 64K 600XL's seemed to originate from Atari Canada, or maybe a dealer in Canada that was upgrading them with a homebrew looking board prior to sale. Heck, I would have done the same if it promoted sales of languishing stock. I thought was discussed in a previous thread, but I can't find the reference right now... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JR> Posted May 4, 2019 Share Posted May 4, 2019 I recall those pre-upgraded 64K 600XL's seemed to originate from Atari Canada, or maybe a dealer in Canada that was upgrading them with a homebrew looking board prior to sale. Heck, I would have done the same if it promoted sales of languishing stock. I thought was discussed in a previous thread, but I can't find the reference right now... That does sound familiar. Found this... Post number 16 by almost rice (who hasn't been around for a while. Hope he's okay!) http://atariage.com/forums/topic/73013-atari-600xl-mem-upgrade/ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS Posted May 4, 2019 Share Posted May 4, 2019 or maybe a dealer in Canada that was upgrading them with a homebrew looking board prior to sale That's an interesting idea. Like the way that car dealers used to do their own individual customizations to new models that they sold in order to entice customers to buy from their dealership. I try not to be one of those guys who claim that "everything was better in the past" but specialization in the retail market is something that has sadly disappeared. Big box stores just cannot provide the individualization of brand specific retailers. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JR> Posted May 4, 2019 Share Posted May 4, 2019 From the FAQ: Rare variations of the 600XL:A small number of 600XLs were sold with 64KiB RAM. These may have onlyappeared in Canada. The box had a round gold foil sticker reading: "64kMemory -- Now with a full 64k of memory built-in." The computer contains aninternal memory upgrade daughterboard by BOT Engineering (based near Toronto). 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Almost Rice Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 I am still around. I will have to dig the Canadian 64k 600xl out and make some more pictures. I have the corresponding box too. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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