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From: toddpw@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: apple memory card
Message-ID: <1991Jun10.210558.2883@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 10 Jun 91 21:05:58 GMT
References: <4769@meaddata.meaddata.com>
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Lines: 25

johnt@meaddata.com (John Townsend) writes:

>Ah, but I thought that memory cards, like CP/M cards, don't have any firmware,
>and thus would not collide with the 80-column firmware.  Is the Apple Memory
>Expansion Card an exception?  What about the AE RAMFactor card and other 
>slot 1-7 memory cards?

Not all memory cards are alike. Cards that go in the //e auxiliary slot, the
//gs memory slot, or the ancient ones that go in slots 1-7 but operate as
bank-switched RAM, do not have firmware on the cards. Two of these have their
own special slots, and don't conflict with slots 1-7; the BSR cards can be put
in any slot and will work if your software supports them (don't try to put them
in a GS unless you know what you're doing, however).

"Slinky" cards like the Apple Memory Expansion and the RamFactor are a totally
different beast. These use a single byte 'window' into the memory space, and
as such make extremely reliable RAMdisks (they don't get toasted when you
reboot and they are not easy to corrupt accidentally). These all have firmware
of their own so ProDOS will recognize them as disks and know how to use them --
so you don't want these in slot 3. These cards also MUST NOT be plugged into
other slots (somebody managed to suggest this earlier) unless you want to risk
the possibility of frying something.

Todd Whitesel
toddpw @ tybalt.caltech.edu