16 MB of RAM in 1040 STE?

[jericho_21]

Hi, everybody,

 

I got another question. If the 1040STE can go up to 4 MB of RAM using SIMMs, is there a complete way to create a 16 MB RAM workaround for the 1040 STE? I know that there is a partial schematic for a RAM booster on Vezz's Atari ST Hardware Hacks web site for such an upgrade, but is there a complete description of this? I am duly interested in finding ways to really mod my 1040STE. This is just also wishful thinking, as I am scraping to save up my money for cool upgrades for the STE I own. Thanks! ^_^

Edited September 4, 2016 by jericho_21

[ParanoidLittleMan]

Max total 14MB RAM is possible, because ROM space starts right over 14MB pos. As I know there are some upgrades still on market, but I'm not sure is STE specific one at moment available (myself not interested in such upgrades).

And to add, that such RAM expansion - over 4MB is not equal to low 4MB, so called ST RAM - can not be used as video memory, can not be used for floppy or ACSI hard disk access.

[jericho_21]

Thanks for the information, and it is appreciated. I wonder of someone like exxos, or anybody in Europe for that matter, can find a way of doing something like that in the future. I think that would open up some definite possibilities.

[exxosuk]

My next gen of STE booster will have a expansion port so things like alt-ram, IDE etc can be added. I've not done a IDE circuit before, got the prototype here just no time to test. Once thats sorted, then things will really start to happen! Alt-ram will become "fast-ram" Will offer 10MB of likely 32mhz speed RAM, so that combined with 32mhz TOS, anything which runs in fast-ram will gain a huge speed boost. Its actually already all been designed, but I have so many things that people want I am mostly working on the smaller/quicker projects currently. Though with my store getting shut down im having to deal with all that, so hardware dev had to take a back seat for now.

[jericho_21]

My next gen of STE booster will have a expansion port so things like alt-ram, IDE etc can be added. I've not done a IDE circuit before, got the prototype here just no time to test. Once thats sorted, then things will really start to happen! Alt-ram will become "fast-ram" Will offer 10MB of likely 32mhz speed RAM, so that combined with 32mhz TOS, anything which runs in fast-ram will gain a huge speed boost. Its actually already all been designed, but I have so many things that people want I am mostly working on the smaller/quicker projects currently. Though with my store getting shut down im having to deal with all that, so hardware dev had to take a back seat for now.

Hey, that's pretty cool, Exxos. I look forward to seeing that soon. I might purchase it once things get really moving soon, once the upgrade is ready I mean. Thanks for the update.

[jericho_21]

My next gen of STE booster will have a expansion port so things like alt-ram, IDE etc can be added. I've not done a IDE circuit before, got the prototype here just no time to test. Once thats sorted, then things will really start to happen! Alt-ram will become "fast-ram" Will offer 10MB of likely 32mhz speed RAM, so that combined with 32mhz TOS, anything which runs in fast-ram will gain a huge speed boost. Its actually already all been designed, but I have so many things that people want I am mostly working on the smaller/quicker projects currently. Though with my store getting shut down im having to deal with all that, so hardware dev had to take a back seat for now.

Speaking of your next generation STE booster, Exxos, would you be working on that with Rodolphe Pineau, or is that solely your project?

Edited September 24, 2016 by jericho_21

[exxosuk]

In the beginning Rodolphe helped with the 68000 designs but later gave up due to some issues then started to work with someone else on a 020 VHDL based design. I am still working on the 68000 based design and still doing much debugging on that. Though with my time so limited even though it is only really a few days work to complete the STE V2 series booster, its time I don't have.

 

The IDE prototype is designed and I have the PCB here, I posted some images on FB a couple weeks ago in fact. I've updated the design by PP, everyone uses that design, but I wanted to make it simpler and all in one GAL IC. Then the code would be a direct copy to the larger PLDs.

 

The booster itself will be the same as the previous booster with exception to the IDE port and Fast-RAM expansion port. The Fast-Ram board has also been designed. The hold up with the whole project is because someone got my paypal account shut down and I am having to spend all my free time on getting my store back online. So no progress with the booster for over a month. When my store goes back online theres a lot of people wanting stuff, so likely I will run out of stock of items like the PSU's.. Then I will spend the next month building up more stock on those.. So I don't know when I will get time to work on the boosters.

 

I also designed a RTC board and CTCM type board for the falcon and ST, But I just don't have time to test anymore designs, so been sending these projects out to people willing to test and debug them for me. There are also projects where I have the PCB's here and parts, from several months ago which I haven't had time to work on either.

 

There seems to be a lot of people working on boosters lately, So I am not sure if its even worth continuing my booster work for much longer. Its a huge amount of work to design a new product, mostly people seem to be re-inventing older designs rather than design something new. I'm not in the market for "taking shortcuts" like that and would rather build,test,debug myself before producing items for sale. Then I can build on and expand the projects. Thats why I had a V1, V1.5, V2 booster for the STFM. I do stuff in stages and make sure each stage is fully tested and proven to work before I build something else onto it.

 

Of course is great that others are taking up the soldering iron and producing hardware for our old machines, but there is no use in everyone working on similar projects. All my free time goes on Atari related work and I could do with reducing my workload by at least 50% as its all to much for just one person to keep up with. Of course this depends on the community, if people want to support other developers, thats fine, but then there is little point in myself developing similar hardware.

 

This type of thing was exactly what happened with PeST. Myself and alison produced PeST and we sold a lot of them, it funded more developments, then some guys copied some "freeware" design and produced that at half the price then our sales stopped pretty much overnight. All our work wasted because of some guys who took a freeware design and sold it. We developed PeST from the ground up, it was a lot of work. So we stopped producing PeST and that was the end of it. Its why I started working on boosters, as nobody was working on them. So I feel that this is getting into a bad situation again for me now. I don't want to spend huge amounts of my time and money developing items where nobody will want it. So will just see how things go over the next year or so. If I can drop the booster development it gives me more time to work on other designs with as my PSU's and RAM/ROM type upgrades.

[jericho_21]

In the beginning Rodolphe helped with the 68000 designs but later gave up due to some issues then started to work with someone else on a 020 VHDL based design. I am still working on the 68000 based design and still doing much debugging on that. Though with my time so limited even though it is only really a few days work to complete the STE V2 series booster, its time I don't have.

 

The IDE prototype is designed and I have the PCB here, I posted some images on FB a couple weeks ago in fact. I've updated the design by PP, everyone uses that design, but I wanted to make it simpler and all in one GAL IC. Then the code would be a direct copy to the larger PLDs.

 

The booster itself will be the same as the previous booster with exception to the IDE port and Fast-RAM expansion port. The Fast-Ram board has also been designed. The hold up with the whole project is because someone got my paypal account shut down and I am having to spend all my free time on getting my store back online. So no progress with the booster for over a month. When my store goes back online theres a lot of people wanting stuff, so likely I will run out of stock of items like the PSU's.. Then I will spend the next month building up more stock on those.. So I don't know when I will get time to work on the boosters.

 

I also designed a RTC board and CTCM type board for the falcon and ST, But I just don't have time to test anymore designs, so been sending these projects out to people willing to test and debug them for me. There are also projects where I have the PCB's here and parts, from several months ago which I haven't had time to work on either.

 

There seems to be a lot of people working on boosters lately, So I am not sure if its even worth continuing my booster work for much longer. Its a huge amount of work to design a new product, mostly people seem to be re-inventing older designs rather than design something new. I'm not in the market for "taking shortcuts" like that and would rather build,test,debug myself before producing items for sale. Then I can build on and expand the projects. Thats why I had a V1, V1.5, V2 booster for the STFM. I do stuff in stages and make sure each stage is fully tested and proven to work before I build something else onto it.

 

Of course is great that others are taking up the soldering iron and producing hardware for our old machines, but there is no use in everyone working on similar projects. All my free time goes on Atari related work and I could do with reducing my workload by at least 50% as its all to much for just one person to keep up with. Of course this depends on the community, if people want to support other developers, thats fine, but then there is little point in myself developing similar hardware.

 

This type of thing was exactly what happened with PeST. Myself and alison produced PeST and we sold a lot of them, it funded more developments, then some guys copied some "freeware" design and produced that at half the price then our sales stopped pretty much overnight. All our work wasted because of some guys who took a freeware design and sold it. We developed PeST from the ground up, it was a lot of work. So we stopped producing PeST and that was the end of it. Its why I started working on boosters, as nobody was working on them. So I feel that this is getting into a bad situation again for me now. I don't want to spend huge amounts of my time and money developing items where nobody will want it. So will just see how things go over the next year or so. If I can drop the booster development it gives me more time to work on other designs with as my PSU's and RAM/ROM type upgrades.

No worries on the time it takes. I probably would not do anything with it right now anyway, since I do no work on the STE right at this moment. I will in the future, however. Then, I will get the accessories for the STE that I need. Well, once completed anyway. Thanks for the update, Exxos. Appreciated as always.

Edited September 25, 2016 by jericho_21

[jericho_21]

I am also glad that other individuals are taking interest on working on STE boosters. That's a far cry from a few years back, when it was literally dead. I hope that these projects are successful. Thanks again.