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From: carlson@gateway.mitre.org (Bruce Carlson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Can you use Expanded memory as Extended?
Keywords: PC/AT, RAM, memory, expanded, extended, EMS
Message-ID: <43509@linus.UUCP>
Date: 10 Jan 89 12:56:10 GMT
References: <3129@dalcs.UUCP> <3136@ima.ima.isc.com>
Sender: news@linus.UUCP
Reply-To: carlson@gateway.mitre.org (Bruce Carlson)
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Organization: The Mitre Corporation
Lines: 33

In article <3136@ima.ima.isc.com> johnl@ima.UUCP (John R. Levine) writes:
>In article <3129@dalcs.UUCP> lane@dalcs.UUCP (John Wright/Dr. Pat Lane) writes:
>>Is there any product, hardware or software, that will let you use
>>expanded memory (LIM EMS whatever) as extended, or, vice versa?
>
>On every AT expanded memory board I have ever seen it is possible to set
>DIP switches on the board to configure the memory as expanded, extended,
>or in many cases a combination of the two.  If you are using an operating
>system that runs in protected mode, extended memory is much more useful.
>
>John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 492 3869
>{ bbn | spdcc | decvax | harvard | yale }!ima!johnl, Levine@YALE.something
>You're never too old to have a happy childhood.

I have an AST Premium 286 (AT compatible) and the AST memory board can
be set for various combinations of expanded/extended memory.  The default
is 640k of "normal memory" and the remainder as expanded, but I also tried
the option of 1.5 mbyte of extended and it worked as advertised.  I think
the memory in the AST Premium meets the LIM 4.0 specs, but I'm not sure.

According to the AST documentation, in my current configuration I can use
the REMM.SYS driver to access the expanded memory and then use the REX.SYS
driver to use some of the expanded memory to emulate extended memory.
AST seems to think this is primarily so I can create a RAM disk, but I 
assume it may work with other extended memory applications.

A note about the REMM.SYS file versions.  The REMM.SYS that came with the
computer was 3.xxx and when I tried to use it with Windows 2.1 it caused
Windows to blow up completely (unreadable screen) and the computer
locked up.  Windows 2.1 came with another REMM.SYS driver (4.1 I think) and 
once I switched to the new driver I didn't have any problems.

Bruce Carlson