Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!xanth!src
From: src@cs.odu.edu (Scott R. Chilcote)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Free RAM from Atari
Summary: Not Necessarily
Message-ID: <10142@xanth.cs.odu.edu>
Date: 10 Oct 89 12:58:08 GMT
References: <5261@shlump.nac.dec.com>
Reply-To: src@cs.odu.edu
Distribution: usa
Organization: Old Dominion University, Norfolk Va.
Lines: 42

In article <5261@shlump.nac.dec.com> landry@enginr.dec.com writes:
>" 
>"  So, for the cost of soldering one pin of one IC to the motherboard,  I 
>"have a FOUR MEGABYTE computer!!
>"  
>
>	My guess is that this was a Mega 4 that didn't pass the checkout.
>       ...
>	So you got lucky!
>
>	chris

  I originally suspected this, but there's no evidence to support your 
belief.  The (now) Mega 4 has been operating flawlessly as a four-Meg machine
for several days now.  Also, the method by which the upper banks were disabled
doesn't support the possibility of the machine ever having been intended to
function as a Mega 4.  When the RAS2* pin was left _unsoldered_, rather than
clippied or disconnected, no test could have been made of the machine with
all four Megabytes operating.

  At this point, it seems that it must have been less expensive for Atari to
make some machines with all of the RAM filled than to make two production runs
separately, one for each size machine.  In order for that to have happened,
Atari must have either been WAY behind on Mega 2 deliveries, or have gotten a
_very_ good price on 1 Megabyte DRAMs!
 
                                                                Scott

-- 

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|| Usenet: src@xanth.UUCP         ||                                       ||
||   Arpa: src@xanth.cs.odu.edu   ||    Q: Why did the chicken cross the   ||
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