NEW: Advert:130 XE mem upgrade for 2 Dram

[a8maestro]

Hi,

 

All of the work is done on the new memory upgrade for the 130XE that uses 4 64K drams.

 

Turned out very nice.

 

Here are the links:

 

Main More Than Games:

http://www.a8maestro.com/sites/mtgcat/mtgcat.htm

 

 

130XE 2 dram upgrade, 256K:

http://www.a8maestro.com/sites/mtgcat/proda8/adv-ek0040.htm

 

 

I've updated the standard 130 upgrade too.

130XE 8 dram upgrade, 256K:

http://www.a8maestro.com/sites/mtgcat/proda8/adv-ek0006.htm

 

 

 

 

Rick D.

[puppetmark]

Very nice work! I tip my hat to you.

[Rybags]

Nice.

 

Any plans for the XEGS?

 

And, does the 8x256k upgrade retain the proper seperate ANTIC/CPU access to extended memory?

[Allas]

What kind of thing is that desoldering tool. Really I see very hard to remove a chip from the mainboard, is there any trick?

[walter_J64bit]

Nice.

 

Any plans for the XEGS?

 

And, does the 8x256k upgrade retain the proper seperate ANTIC/CPU access to extended memory?

I would like to see an upgrade of the XEGS too, 512k would be grate!

[walter_J64bit]

Nice.

 

Any plans for the XEGS?

 

And, does the 8x256k upgrade retain the proper seperate ANTIC/CPU access to extended memory?

I would like to see an upgrade of the XEGS too, 512k would be grate!

[a8maestro]

Nice.

 

Any plans for the XEGS?

 

And, does the 8x256k upgrade retain the proper seperate ANTIC/CPU access to extended memory?

 

I am getting info on the XEGS together. I do not yet know how many others are doing anything on XEGS memory upgrades.

 

Antic is lost, CPU remains(natch). Any upgrade that uses PIA pin 15 takes ANTIC control away. The new XE upgrade only reconfigures the circuit for the new drams, both are functionally identical. There may be complex schemes to fix this, the simplest is to leave pin 15 as is, and use pin 11, Basic control instead, putting BASIC on a switch, and/or diag rom boot logic. Page banking scheme has to change too which means lots of commercial software fails. So more switches to fix this.

 

I usually just leave the upgrade as is using pin 15, then as needed for some rare reason I will add a switch for Antic to follow bank memory(only).

 

Rick D.

Edited September 6, 2007 by a8maestro

[a8maestro]

I would like to see an upgrade of the XEGS too, 512k would be grate!

 

We will see. Depends on how many control bits people are willing to give up. 256K of banked ram is usually enough for most stuff(unless you are into large databases or a bbs), and commercial software rarely sees more.

 

The small upgrade uses pins 15 and 16, and people seem to want to keep ANTIC control available though rarely used, so whats left after BASIC and the OS? There is a fix for using the diag rom pin for banking after booting.

 

(edit)

Mathy N has done a 1 meg upgrade for the XEGS. I do not know where it stands today.

Here:http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=88657.

(end edit)

 

Rick D.

Edited September 6, 2007 by a8maestro

[a8maestro]

What kind of thing is that desoldering tool. Really I see very hard to remove a chip from the mainboard, is there any trick?

 

Just a specialized soldering iron, with a holed tip and squeeze bulb used to suck the solder off the pin/pad.

 

 

Here are pictures from the Radio Shack web site of the type I use:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.js...rentPage=search

 

Heat, squeeze bulb, place tip over pin, move around till heated, released bulb. There are other tricks to make this work very well such as adding some fresh solder to the pins first.

 

Desoldering braid:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.js...rentPage=search

 

This will remove all of the solder from the pins/holes, but can take a lot of braid for one chip. Sometimes, have to use on both sides of the board.

 

Rick D.

[javiero]

What kind of thing is that desoldering tool. Really I see very hard to remove a chip from the mainboard, is there any trick?

 

Allas, nunca debes utilizar la malla para desoldar circuitos integrados hace un verdadero batidillo, el desoldador de succión es la manera mas simple, lo único que debes cuidar es que el circuito integrado no se caliente demasiado ya que se puede dañar el proceso. Saludos desde México.

[Allas]

Gracias, realmente es la solución más usada y la mejor según parece.

[+Larry]

FWIW-

 

I have one of these upgrades from Rick, and it works great. I've only had it for a few days, but it is rock-solid, and a very nice, very professional-looking upgrade. It's a shame that Atari didn't make more of these boards.

 

-Larry