Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!bnrgate!bigsur!bnr-rsc!mlord
From: mlord@bnr-rsc.UUCP (Mark Lord)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Everex RAM-3000 Deluxe Failures
Message-ID: <2279@bnr-rsc.UUCP>
Date: 7 Mar 90 16:53:28 GMT
References: <6846@ubc-cs.UUCP> <29243@amdcad.AMD.COM> <1668@clmqt.marquette.Mi.US>
Reply-To: mlord@bnr-rsc.UUCP (Mark Lord)
Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada
Lines: 34

In article <1668@clmqt.marquette.Mi.US> strike@clmqt.marquette.Mi.US (Tim Bowser) writes:
<phil@pepsi.amd.com (Phil Ngai) writes:
<
<<Yes, I have a RAM-8000 which does not work in my 12 MHz
<<286 mother board. I waited too long to try it and now
<<I can't return it. Sigh.
<   Currently running 1 meg EMS on a RAM-3000 in a 20Mhz SX.  Before that, 
<it was running without one glitch in an AST 10Mhz 286.
<
<   If the original poster will note; in the documents for the RAM-3000, 
<it states that the 16-bit mode is not reliable in a high-speed 
<environment (this in the Expanded memory mode).Page 24 has the note in 
<boldface.  Also, you didn't specify the speed of the chips mounted on the 
<RAM-3000.  Using 150ns chips in a high-speed computer isn't just 
<questionable from a performance standpoint, it is dubious from the 
<reliability aspect as well.

These are ok comments, but we all know that processor speed can be misleading,
especially here.  Many 12Mhz machines run the expansion bus at a full 12Mhz.
All of the SX machines I have seen, though, run it at 1/2 processor speed.

So it is not all that amazing that the card works in a 20Mhz SX, since it is
really running it at a mere 10Mhz, the same as the AST 286.

I had an EVEREX RAM-3000DX, with 120ns rams, that would not work in 16-bit EMS
mode on a 10Mhz bus.. setting the appropriate jumper allowed it to work in 
8-bit mode ok.  The EXTENDED memory portion worked fine with 16-bit accesses
regardless.  The 16-bit EMS mode DID work in my 18Mhz SX, but only because the
bus really runs at 9Mhz in that box.
-- 
 ______Mark S. Lord______________________ ______________________________
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