Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!mit-eddie!ll-xn!husc6!ut-sally!joe
From: joe@ut-sally.UUCP (Joe Hitchens)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: internal RAM expansion
Message-ID: <10029@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: 8 Jan 88 20:08:27 GMT
References: <10001@ut-sally.UUCP> <181@stsci> <382@boole.acc.virginia.edu> <22454@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: joe@ut-sally.UUCP (Joe Hitchens)
Distribution: na
Organization: University of Texas at Austin
Lines: 23

In article <22454@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> bryce@hoser.berkeley.edu (Bryce Nesbitt) writes:
>
>** This chip is an Thomson/Mostek Zeropower RAM w/clock.  Ram, battery,
>crystal all in one package.  Anyone ever though of a use for 2040 bytes
>of battery-backed ram on the Amiga?  (assuming you need to run a disk
>program to read it?)
>

I thought of something, but haven't done it yet.  I was making a nice little
24 hour alarm clock when I thought of a neat use for that ram.
I could make the alarm clock remember an alarm time way in the future, like
at 0:00 on Jan. 1, 2000, by storing it in that RAM.
Or more than one, say an alarm that poped up a window every year on your
birthday, or like that.
And if you didn't have the Spirit Clock, you could make the 24hr alarm
check for a recognizable/unlikely-random code in that ram space, if
it isn't there, it is just a 24 hour alarm clock.

Another idea I had was to put KickStart in ROM after modifying it to run
a piece of code that asks for a password you have held in the clock ram.
(and of course refuse to continue booting unless you get it right).

j.h.