Atari 600xl ram upgrade identification

[shoestring]

 

I recently bought this Atari 600xl machine off eBay and discovered it was already upgraded to 64kb ram with this expansion board.

 

Does anyone have any info on it?

 

I'm quite impressed with the Atari. I grew up with a C64 and I must say the Atari is fantastic, it has what is referred to as the type 2 keyboard ( AWC 70166201 ) which feels great.

 

The only drawback is the video. I've already cleaned it up a bit my removing a capacitor at c109 & replacing a 390ohm resistor with a 75ohm. Looks much better now.

 

Here is a picture of the expansion board

 

 

 

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[Kyle22]

Wow! That is a big, ugly, and completely unnecessary board. All you need is a pair of 4464 chips and 3 little wires. Look here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/183694-600xl-64k-upgrade-pictures/

[shoestring]

I'd agree with you but in 1986 (which is when the board was built, see date on the PCB ) i'd imagine that a pair of 4464 DRAMs would have been quite expensive. So perhaps the ugly board was necessary at the time to keep the manufacturers costs down.

 

 

 

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[Kyle22]

I'd agree with you but in 1986 (which is when the board was built, see date on the PCB ) i'd imagine that a pair of 4464 DRAMs would have been quite expensive. So perhaps the ugly board was necessary at the time to keep the manufacturers costs down.

 

 

 

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Here's an advert from November, 1986.

 

4164's (on your board) $1.35 * 8 = $10.80

 

4464's (no board) $3.75 * 2 = $7.50

 

3 small wires... maybe $0.25 at the most.

 

So, no, the board would not have been cheaper.

 

[flashjazzcat]

Well, why sell someone a pair of 4464s, a resistor and some wire when you can inveigle customers into buying that thing instead.

[Kyle22]

Well, why sell someone a pair of 4464s, a resistor and some wire when you can inveigle customers into buying that thing instead.

OK, now I'm just nit-picking, but you don't have to buy the resistor. It already exists on the board as R36. Lift the lower leg of R36 and attach wire.

 

Good point, maybe the public discovered this and that's why we've never heard of "Interface Masters" upgrade boards before.

[flashjazzcat]

OK, now I'm just nit-picking, but you don't have to buy the resistor. It already exists on the board as R36. Lift the lower leg of R36 and attach wire.

No - you're absolutely right there. For some reason I misremembered the resistor as an additional component, but it's just R36 as you say. So... even more of a price differential.

[+Larry]

Too bad it wasn't 256K.

 

Can someone see a way to use 44256 chips (20-pin, IIRC) with a fairly simple upgrade instead of the 4464's? Or maybe Ctirad will work out the issues with the Ram320/576 XL upgrade.

 

-Larry

[Kyle22]

The 256K chips have more pins. It would be possible (and very messy) to wire up, but why? Get rid of the big ugly board, put in the pair of 4464s, and get an Ultimate 1Meg.

 

Another big ugly 600XL board from Bot Engineering of Pocket Modem fame: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/73013-atari-600xl-mem-upgrade/

[shoestring]

That is cheap but I'm from Australia.

 

I remember paying $15 each for 44256s which I used to upgrade the chip RAM in my Amiga 500 back in 94.

 

Everything is expensive here

 

 

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