Recomendations for 800XL memory upgrade

[SmileyDude]

I was thinking of expanding my 800XL with some more RAM, and I was wondering what route I should take. I found a few different do-it-yourself options on the net, but I was really set on at least being compatible with the 130XE. Does the separate ANTIC and CPU banks make much of a difference in compatibility? If so, is there an upgrade that remains compatible with the 130XE for the 800XL?

 

Also, I'm concerned about stability -- are the upgrades pretty much all equal?

 

And then the final question -- do any of them have a switch to disable them for compatibility reasons? Or does it pretty much not matter?

 

Thanks!

[Shawn Jefferson]

Because most of the upgrades didn't specifically retain the 130XE feature for seperate banking of RAM for ANTIC and CPU, not a lot of software that utilizes extra memory relies on that feature.

 

As for stability, I've had a 256k upgrade in my 800XL for over 10 years... still working great. With that upgrade there is no switches or anything to retain compatibility, it already is compatible since it uses PORTB the same way a 130XE would. Larger upgrades start to lose compatibility, or features (interal BASIC or the self-test) by stealing more bits from PORTB to control bank switching.

 

There's a bunch at http://www.atariarchives.org/ in the Cleveland SIG thingee...