Atari 800 32k RAM cards, purpose?

[tjlazer]

OK when I first got into the Atari 800 (like 2 years ago) I thought that you could actually expand it to 64k by getting a 32K ram card and using two 16K ram cards. I guess that is not possible. So... why have the 32k ram cards? Was it just to save power, and space due to heat? Also a cheaper alternative to the two 16k Atari cards?

[Rybags]

Cheaper than 2x16s. I believe there are also some expansions that use a memory slot despite not adding memory.

 

Actually, some early RAM cards used "half RAM chips" ie - if a RAM chip had a "bad" half of memory it could often still be used to half it's capacity.

[sup8pdct]

OK when I first got into the Atari 800 (like 2 years ago) I thought that you could actually expand it to 64k by getting a 32K ram card and using two 16K ram cards. I guess that is not possible. So... why have the 32k ram cards? Was it just to save power, and space due to heat? Also a cheaper alternative to the two 16k Atari cards?

There were several upgrades for the 800 that went into the 3rd memory slot. one was an 80 coloum card from Bit3 I think there was some sort of storage card as well. saw an add in an early mag but not much else about it.

With one memory slot taken, one of the other 2 had to have 32K. the Middle ram slot was capable of handling 32k with a 16K board in the first slot.

also, the atari 400 could also take the 32K card with no mods.

The 800 by design can only have 48K of ram normally but there are mods to get around this limit.

 

James

[+Larry]

OK when I first got into the Atari 800 (like 2 years ago) I thought that you could actually expand it to 64k by getting a 32K ram card and using two 16K ram cards. I guess that is not possible. So... why have the 32k ram cards? Was it just to save power, and space due to heat? Also a cheaper alternative to the two 16k Atari cards?

There were several upgrades for the 800 that went into the 3rd memory slot. one was an 80 coloum card from Bit3 I think there was some sort of storage card as well. saw an add in an early mag but not much else about it.

With one memory slot taken, one of the other 2 had to have 32K. the Middle ram slot was capable of handling 32k with a 16K board in the first slot.

also, the atari 400 could also take the 32K card with no mods.

The 800 by design can only have 48K of ram normally but there are mods to get around this limit.

 

James

 

I'm looking at the packaging/docs from one of these right now... In addition to James' excellent answer, early 800's were sold with only 16K, and I've heard that early, early models came with 8K. So you could upgrade as ram became cheaper by adding 2, 16K boards or 1, 32K board. 32K boards in general were cheaper than 2, 16K boards, had less RFI, and supposedly ran cooler. (?) For sure, heat was an issue if you had 3 ram boards + the OS board in the RFI shields/covers.

 

The premier memory upgrade was of course the Axlon Ramdisk 128K board. Probably second was the Mosaic 64K board. There were a bunch of 32K boards from 3rd party suppliers.

 

-Larry

[walter_J64bit]

I have a 800 with 288K it was installed by B&C now I need to replace the keyboard so it can be used.

[sup8pdct]

OK when I first got into the Atari 800 (like 2 years ago) I thought that you could actually expand it to 64k by getting a 32K ram card and using two 16K ram cards. I guess that is not possible. So... why have the 32k ram cards? Was it just to save power, and space due to heat? Also a cheaper alternative to the two 16k Atari cards?

There were several upgrades for the 800 that went into the 3rd memory slot. one was an 80 coloum card from Bit3 I think there was some sort of storage card as well. saw an add in an early mag but not much else about it.

With one memory slot taken, one of the other 2 had to have 32K. the Middle ram slot was capable of handling 32k with a 16K board in the first slot.

also, the atari 400 could also take the 32K card with no mods.

The 800 by design can only have 48K of ram normally but there are mods to get around this limit.

 

James

 

I'm looking at the packaging/docs from one of these right now... In addition to James' excellent answer, early 800's were sold with only 16K, and I've heard that early, early models came with 8K. So you could upgrade as ram became cheaper by adding 2, 16K boards or 1, 32K board. 32K boards in general were cheaper than 2, 16K boards, had less RFI, and supposedly ran cooler. (?) For sure, heat was an issue if you had 3 ram boards + the OS board in the RFI shields/covers.

 

The premier memory upgrade was of course the Axlon Ramdisk 128K board. Probably second was the Mosaic 64K board. There were a bunch of 32K boards from 3rd party suppliers.

 

-Larry

Just on the heat issue, I directive came from atari about the 800 and the covers on the ram boards. If any computer came in, remove the covers to stop possible problems with heat build up. Later atari 800's had fully populated ram. all covers were absent, the boards were held in place by a single plastic spacer that went across the top of the boards. also the black clips along the sides of the case that held the plastic covers is also missing. The top cover was held by 2 screws, not those little plastic locking clips.

 

James