Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!apple!bionet!agate!ucbvax!POSTGRES.BERKELEY.EDU!dillon
From: dillon@POSTGRES.BERKELEY.EDU (Matt Dillon)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Enhancer 1.3 package
Message-ID: <8811202112.AA05012@postgres.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 20 Nov 88 21:12:40 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Lines: 21

:Peter Schachte pointed out that 500 and 2000 owners have KickStart in ROM 
:while 1000 owners must load it into Read Only RAM with every cold boot.  He
:suggests that future machines use EEPROM to get the best of *BOTH* worlds.
:I wonder if there isn't a fairly simple hardware hack that would preserve
:the contents of the KickStart RAM between cold starts.  The power could come 
:from one of those calculator-style battery chargers that plug into the wall
:if there was no better way to supply the trickle current.  How about it, guys?
:Can it be done?  Is it worth it?  What do we lose in the way of power-on 
:tests?  EMail responses to me and I'll summarize them.
:
:Dana          (no fancy pun, no quotes.  That's in the NEXT rev.)

	Unfortunetly, dynamic RAM takes a *lot* of power, even when you
aren't doing anything... the refresh that is.  Not only would you need to
isolate the power bus, but you would also have to add some kind of refresh 
generator.  At the temperatures expected inside the case you would not be
able to get a way with a slow refresh to keep the contents alive.

	And, as everyone has pointed out, 512K+ of EEPROM costs $$$$$.

							-Matt