• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

520stfm with 1040

somecomputerguy

New Member
Joined
Nov 5, 2018
Messages
8
I bought a 502stfm from eBay recently. I have been able to boot to boot to GEM, and read disks, but have not run any real software on it yet. It is a little odd in that the motherboard says "1040ST C103255 REV.2". At first, I thought that someone put this motherboard in here aftermarket, but there does not appear to be any hacks done to it - everything looks kosher. Also, I believe it only has 512k RAM like a 520stfm, as there are 16 blanks that say 256k (I assume this is in bits) next to 16 memory chips. It does, however, appear to include a blitter (there are two large square socketed chips next to the 68000 CPU), this is not usually in a 520stfm, correct?

A few questions...

... is this rare having 1040 motherboard in a 520? Do you think this came like this from factory, or if someone did this after purchase?

... will games make use of the blitter chip, even though it's a 520? Do I need to do any OS or setup modifications to make this happen?

...since it's a 1040 motherboard, if I were to solder on sockets and the insert the 16 extra RAM chips, would the motherboard and OS be able to actually use this extra 512k RAM?

...also, is there any way to tell what version of GEM that I have in ROM?
 
All the 1040stf's or 520stfms I've opened have square chips, none of which were blitters. Supposedly some late model mobos had a traces for a blitter. Normally the only st that has a blitter is an ste model.
 
All the 1040stf's or 520stfms I've opened have square chips, none of which were blitters. Supposedly some late model mobos had a traces for a blitter. Normally the only st that has a blitter is an ste model.

Some Mega STs have blitters. Bigger mother boards are common. The chips for the memory upgrade are getting rare and expensive.
 
Back
Top