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Ramquest 8/16 SIMM compatibility

D

dmuntz

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Joined
May 20, 2022
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39
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Cupertino
I just got stupidly lucky with a recent 5160 purchase. The machine contained a nice Tecmar muli-function + memory + clock card and an 8-bit VGA, card but the real gems are a CompatiCard IV, and the aforementioned Ramquest 8/16. The Ramquest will most likely go into a 5170 I'm working on (if it ends up working), but the question I have is which SIMMs will work with it? This card predates FPM and EDO memory, and I'm not sure what I have sitting around. I gather from the manual that I need parity, and SIMMs up to 4MB each. My dim recollection is that FPM should be backward compatible with hardware that doesn't support FPM, but I could be wrong. I'm not sure if I ever had EDO memory, so no idea about backward compatibility with it, although if the only difference is that the data is valid for a longer period, I could imagine it might be backward compatible as well. As always, any info is greatly appreciated.
 
It wouldn't exactly matter. IIRC, all the 30pin SIMMs used the same RAM technology. I guess now it would be considered FPM but as long as you avoid PS/2 specific SIMMs, any 30-pin parity SIMM should work. Speeds are such that almost all the SIMMs that can be found will be faster than the 100ns RAM that is listed as the minimum.
 
It's been a really long time since I tested mine, but I am somewhat confident that the 3-chip 30-pin SIMMs I tried on mine were not detected. Go for 9 chip to be safe.

You got a hell of a lot of nice stuff in that system. Do you think it was configured that way by the original owner, or had somebody been tinkering around with it in modern times?
 
maxtherabbit said:
Dunno if I'd call it lucky, I saw that system on ebay and you paid a ton for it
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I've needed a compaticard for a project (single-system media conversion: all floppy formats, 1/4" tape, zip drive, etc.), and for some reason people are asking as much or more for them than I paid for the whole system. I didn't know what the RamQuest card was (hadn't heard of it until I got it out of the computer and looked it up). Would purchase again. :)
 
rmay635703 said:
That system looks surprisingly a lot like a machine I sold about 14 years ago, (same cards inside) it has really gotten around if it is
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Did it have a 170M Maxtor MFM HD? The video card is a Video 7. I'm considering whether or not to put the 5160 up for sale after I've looted it, so it might be continuing its journey.
 
Anonymous Coward said:
It's been a really long time since I tested mine, but I am somewhat confident that the 3-chip 30-pin SIMMs I tried on mine were not detected. Go for 9 chip to be safe.

You got a hell of a lot of nice stuff in that system. Do you think it was configured that way by the original owner, or had somebody been tinkering around with it in modern times?
Click to expand...
Heh... original owner _might_ be one of the replies in this thread. There's nothing obviously anachronistic that I've noticed, right down to the full-height Maxtor boat anchor (non-functional as a HD) in the driver's side drive bay.
 
rmay635703 said:
That system looks surprisingly a lot like a machine I sold about 14 years ago, (same cards inside) it has really gotten around if it is
Click to expand...
It also has an 8087 which is pretty unusual, and the Tecmar card is a Captain. Would be funny if it's the same machine. We're going to have to start writing our names inside the cases when they're sold :)
 
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