Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!mcdchg!ddsw1!tronsbox!akcs.graf_e
From: akcs.graf_e@tronsbox.UUCP (Graf Eberstein)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: ALR 386/220
Keywords: raam ramblings
Message-ID: <[256fa9cc:24]comp.sys.ibm.pc@tronsbox.UUCP>
Date: 26 Nov 89 23:00:08 GMT
Lines: 29

A simple question to all (I think):

I recently purchased a new computer, to replace my dead 80286 based AT. The
new machine is an Advanced Logic Research (ALR) Model 386/220. It has one
megabyte of 32 bit RAM onboard, supposedly.

The question is this, and I somehow get the feeling that only people who
know this machine would know this (but if you don't, and have ideas for
answers, please...). Anyway, when the machine does a POST, it reads 640K RAM
of BASE memory and 256K extended, which totals 896K, and not 1 meg (aka
1024K). In other words, where is the other 128K?

There is a ROM to RAM copy function that can be dissabled by DIP switch, but
the RAM is still not there if I do that.

The machine passes every test imaginable, and all the RAM chips are the same
type, and by convention should total 1024K. It has never been modified, etc.
Further, if I reset the CMOS to reflect 384K extended, it gives a memory
ammount error and insists that there's only 256K extended.

Hints? Clues? Tips? Send me a reply here, or tack on to this message thread.

Oh, some specifics on the hardware:
BIOS is PHOENIX BIOS, dated 1/15/88
DOS is MSDOS v3.30
CPU is INTEL 80386 (22 MHz)
No Co-processor installed
Video is VEGA VIDEO-7 (VGA BIOS is dated 1988)
HDC is a SEAGATE SCSI controller (also dated 1988)