I would say probably no - the chips on the card are FPM, the new EliteMT chips are EDO. Mixing FPM and EBO chips generally causes problems. Another question is if the graphic chip and it´s BIOS support EDO at all.

https://pdf1.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/v … 11B416256A.html
https://pdf.datasheetcatalog.com/datasheet_pd … C16256HT60I.pdf

majestyk wrote on 2024-06-15, 07:12:

I would say probably no - the chips on the card are FPM, the new EliteMT chips are EDO. Mixing FPM and EBO chips generally causes problems. Another question is if the graphic chip and it´s BIOS support EDO at all.

https://pdf1.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/v … 11B416256A.html
https://pdf.datasheetcatalog.com/datasheet_pd … C16256HT60I.pdf

So I have to find “V53C16256HK5” chip only right?

For me, the easiest and less expensive way to get memory chips for old cards, is getting one of those generic Virge cards or similar that came with full 4mb using removable chips.

At least in Europe (Spain), these are readily available for less than 10€. And, after removing the expansion ram, you'll end up with a working 2mb card + chips that you can use in other more interesting VGAs.

What I end up doing with these cards is reusing them when I want to sell a motherboard of my 'collection', for example, I accompany the board with such a graphics card and a basic pci sound card, so the future user can start building a retro system with ease 😀

mmx_91 wrote on 2024-06-15, 07:40:

For me, the easiest and less expensive way to get memory chips for old cards, is getting one of those generic Virge cards or similar that came with full 4mb using removable chips.

At least in Europe (Spain), these are readily available for less than 10€.

Getting memory chips from vintage hardware of the same era is a great idee indeed. But in this case, it likely won't help. If you want to get any kind of sensible performance from a Virge card, it should operate the memory in "single cycle EDO" mode. This mode obviously requires EDO chips, which weren't noticibly more expensive than FPM chips at the time the Virge hit the market. So chances are extremely high that memory chips on a Virge card are EDO chips. This thread started with the OP already having EDO chips and wondering whether they would be suited for their Trio 64 card.

As the key difference about EDO and FPM is that EDO chips don't "shut up" as easily as FPM chips, this difference is mostly only an issue if there are multiple parties on the memory bus relying on each other party to relinquish the bus if they are intended to do so. The OP shows a single-bank Trio64 card currently equipped with only 32 bits of the memory bus populated (you might call it a "half bank"). Upgrading it to 64 bit will not introduce a second bank. Each data bit is only connected to one memory chip and the graphics chip. If the graphics chip needs to drive the memory data bus (for writing) it will enable the "/WE" (write enable) line, which will make EDO and FPM memory relinquish the data bus. At all other times, it is not relevant whether the memory chip still drives the bus (as EDO chips do in some circumstances) or not (as FPM chips do). I expect that on graphics cards in single-bank configurations, EDO chips are likely going to work without any issue, even if mixed with FPM inside the same bank.

If the OP already has the chips, I suggest to try if they work in high-resolution modes, and if yes, just use them.

mkarcher wrote on 2024-06-15, 09:28:

Getting memory chips from vintage hardware of the same era is a great idee indeed. But in this case, it likely won't help. If yo […]
Show full quote

mmx_91 wrote on 2024-06-15, 07:40:

For me, the easiest and less expensive way to get memory chips for old cards, is getting one of those generic Virge cards or similar that came with full 4mb using removable chips.

At least in Europe (Spain), these are readily available for less than 10€.

Getting memory chips from vintage hardware of the same era is a great idee indeed. But in this case, it likely won't help. If you want to get any kind of sensible performance from a Virge card, it should operate the memory in "single cycle EDO" mode. This mode obviously requires EDO chips, which weren't noticibly more expensive than FPM chips at the time the Virge hit the market. So chances are extremely high that memory chips on a Virge card are EDO chips. This thread started with the OP already having EDO chips and wondering whether they would be suited for their Trio 64 card.

As the key difference about EDO and FPM is that EDO chips don't "shut up" as easily as FPM chips, this difference is mostly only an issue if there are multiple parties on the memory bus relying on each other party to relinquish the bus if they are intended to do so. The OP shows a single-bank Trio64 card currently equipped with only 32 bits of the memory bus populated (you might call it a "half bank"). Upgrading it to 64 bit will not introduce a second bank. Each data bit is only connected to one memory chip and the graphics chip. If the graphics chip needs to drive the memory data bus (for writing) it will enable the "/WE" (write enable) line, which will make EDO and FPM memory relinquish the data bus. At all other times, it is not relevant whether the memory chip still drives the bus (as EDO chips do in some circumstances) or not (as FPM chips do). I expect that on graphics cards in single-bank configurations, EDO chips are likely going to work without any issue, even if mixed with FPM inside the same bank.

If the OP already has the chips, I suggest to try if they work in high-resolution modes, and if yes, just use them.

Ouch! My fault, I understood the opposite, that OP needed EDO chips and he had spare FPMs 😀

DataDragons wrote on 2024-06-15, 07:35:

[...]

So I have to find “V53C16256HK5” chip only right?

That would definitely work, but any other 256k x 16 FPM chips rated for 50ns or lower in the correct SOJ form factor would be fine too. Just check the datasheet of any potential chips.

"FPM" (or "FP") isn't always explicitly mentioned in datasheets, but EDO is, so if you find a datasheet just calling a chip 'DRAM' you can assume it's not EDO.