Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!paul.rutgers.edu!jac
From: jac@paul.rutgers.edu (J. A. Chandross)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Rocket Chip
Message-ID: <Mar.12.00.28.25.1989.23698@paul.rutgers.edu>
Date: 12 Mar 89 05:28:26 GMT
References: <1359@husc6.harvard.edu>
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 23

nakada@husc4.HARVARD.EDU (Paul Nakada)
> I read something very disturbing in the latest A+ magazine (april issue)
> There are reviews of 3 8 bit accelerators, Transwarp, Zip Chip and
> Rocket Chip.  I am on the verge of buying a Rocket Chip because of its
> higher clock speed.  The A+ review states that the chip works fine on a
> 128k machine, but barfs if there is any extended memory.

(Didn't you read my review of the RocketChip in January???  I got one of
the first ones.  If not, let me know and I'll send you one.)

Basically, the RocketChip can not accelerate expansion memory that banks
out the ROMS.  This is because it doesn't know what's in the D000.FFFF
space at any given point in time.  For it to cache these locations the
RocketChip would have to know in great detail how each card's soft-switches
worked. 

I've tested the RocketChip with an AE Ramfactor and a 16K card.  Both work
just fine.  Other cards should also.


Jonathan A. Chandross
Internet: jac@paul.rutgers.edu
UUCP: rutgers!paul.rutgers.edu!jac