Jump to content
IGNORED

Expanded 800's


Alfred

Recommended Posts

How common are 800's with Axlon-type expansions ? I have a 1MB 800 and another with 288K, but bitd the few people who had 800's just had stock 48K systems. I never knew anybody else who had the 1MB expansion but there were a couple of the 288K 800's kicking around. So just curious how common >48KB machines were and what was the most common size.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd suppose rather rare as you'd mostly use it as a ramdisk, so unless you did heavy programming or ran a BBS there was probably little use for it. Would have been great for DataPerfect but then you'd have the problem of needing two to three floppies to save all that in-memory data. Same with word processing, nice to have a huge doc in memory but then you'd want to save frequently in case of power outages, etc.

 

I'd suppose close to nil this side of the Atlantic. Don't think they were sold retail at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, Sugarland said:

BITD 800's with >48K were very rare from my experience. As in I never knew anyone with one.   256K XL's were mentioned in discussions but never saw one of those either.

 I'm a bit surprised that Axlon/Magna Systems machines are so rare. Oh well. 256K XL's, man everybody had them around me after the ICD board came out. I think pretty much every BBS was either a 256K XL or a 130XE. I don't recall too many people having Newell boards, we all had Rambos; I think I had four or five 256K machines at one point. I don't remember now, but I think Puff's board that CSS sold was a Newell clone rather than a Rambo.

 

I suppose that means I needn't worry about an Axlon-using DOS if nobody has a machine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

46 minutes ago, Alfred said:

I suppose that means I needn't worry about an Axlon-using DOS if nobody has a machine.

There may not be many 800s with original Axlon/Magna upgrades, but the Incognito modded 800 is supposed to have a "1MB Axlon compatible memory expansion for Colleen mode".

According to the manual SpartaDOS_X 4.48 is supposed to work with up to 4032 KiB Axlon type upgrades.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/21/2019 at 2:46 AM, BillC said:

There may not be many 800s with original Axlon/Magna upgrades, but the Incognito modded 800 is supposed to have a "1MB Axlon compatible memory expansion for Colleen mode".

Ya´re right,

so check out the latest topic for the Incognito too...

 

-> Incognito 800

 

So I guess, much more people using actually this feature now?.

 

Gtx.,

andY

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/20/2019 at 4:43 AM, slx said:

I'd suppose rather rare as you'd mostly use it as a ramdisk, so unless you did heavy programming or ran a BBS there was probably little use for it. Would have been great for DataPerfect but then you'd have the problem of needing two to three floppies to save all that in-memory data. Same with word processing, nice to have a huge doc in memory but then you'd want to save frequently in case of power outages, etc.

 

I'd suppose close to nil this side of the Atlantic. Don't think they were sold retail at all.

 

I vaguely recall at least one of the UK-based shops advertising RAM upgrades.  Can't remember which ones in particular, though.

 

We did have one person with a 256K 800XL in our user group, but I have no idea which upgrade he used.  His was definitely the exception rather than the rule, though.

Edited by x=usr(1536)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/20/2019 at 6:06 PM, Rybags said:

I would think the 52K scheme would have been even rarer for software support, though for only 4K extra the more common use would be user workspace.

 

Wasn't there also a 64K scheme where $CFFF was the banking register?

The Mosiac 64K board gave you 52K of main memory and then allowed you to bank 3 more 4K banks giving a total of 64K. Synapse apps mentioned above used the extra 16K. I believe this board uses that register, IIRC.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Axlon banking is controlled at $CFFF - mosaic can't be the same because that would conflict with the last byte of its usable RAM area. The data written selects the bank.

 

Seems mosaic's banking control register is by writes to $FFxx. The address of the write is what matters, not the data: $FFC0=bank zero, $FFC1=bank 1 etc.

 

 

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...