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From: wwtaroli@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Bill Taroli)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: Uses for Old SIMMs
Message-ID: <2641@rodan.acs.syr.edu>
Date: 27 Mar 90 02:45:17 GMT
References: <426@ai.etl.army.mil> <1990Mar26.182411.11838@planck.uucp>
Reply-To: wwtaroli@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Bill Taroli)
Organization: Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
Lines: 54

>In article <426@ai.etl.army.mil> richr@ai.etl.army.mil. (Richard Rosenthal) writes:
>
>Is it possible (or reasonable) to build a RAM disk interfaced via SCSI?
>Seems that I've seen an awful lot of 256KB SIMMs for sale.

I thought I remembered something like this mentioned in MacUser, so I looked it
up.  It appears a company has already done this, but at quite a cost.

This is from the February 1990 issue of MacUser:

		The SiliconDisk PRO 24, from ATTO Technology, 
		is a SCSI device that packs 24 megabytes of RAM
		and a Motorola 68020 chip into a box that acts
		like a hard-disk drive.  Since the memory is all
		electronic, the I/O performance is incredibly 
		fast -- but it's also incredibily expensive.

		...SiliconDisk come in sizes from 24 megabytes
		to 128 megabytes, and you can order a custom
		unit of up to 512 megabytes.  But all this power
		doesn't come cheap.  This is the Maserati of
		storage devices, starting at $4,995 for the 8-
		megabyte unit and costing up to $52,595 for
		128 megabytes.  (ATTO could not quote a price on
		a 512-megabyte unit because it uses 4-megabyte
		RAM chips, which had unstable prices at press
		time.)

		SiliconDisk PRO 24
		**** 1/2
		List Price: $11,995
		Manufactured by:   ATTO Technology
				   1567 Sweet Home Road
				   Amherst, NY 14221
				   (716) 688-4259
		Compatability: Mac Plus or later.


So, I would assume that it can be done.  I don't know how good a 1Mb
RAM disk would be... I certainly know if I were to use one, I'd rather not
use 1Mb of my system RAM versus 1Mb of RAM that I really have no other use
for.

If anyone has information about getting an external unit using SIMMS for a
RAM disk on the SCSI bus, I'd certainly be interested.

Bill Taroli
WWTAROLI@RODAN.acs.syr.edu

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* Bill Taroli (WWTAROLI@RODAN.acs.syr.edu)    | "You can and must understand  *
* Syracuse University, Syracuse NY            | computers NOW!" -- Ted Nelson *
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