VOGONS


First post, by dionb

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While digging around in my old toolbox I found some old SIMMs I had not given away when stopping with vintage computing last time round. Mostly they are very large (64MB) or fast (50ns) FPM and EDO modules, but I also have two Enhanced EDRAM SIMMs. Now, I know what this EDRAM is - it's a regular form factor 72p SIMM with DRAM memory and SRAM buffers, rated at 15ns instead of the usual 50/60/70ns. Theoretically great stuff, but of no advantage whatsoever if your memory controller doesn't take advantage of it. Does anybody know which chipsets/devices took advantage of the capabilities of this stuff?

Reply 1 of 2, by appiah4

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Octek's DCA range of motherboards with Headland HT340 chipsets took advantage of EDRAM for one. I know because I own a Hippo VL+ with that chipset and it uses EDRAM. I believe HT342 also uses EDRAM.

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 2 of 2, by dionb

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appiah4 wrote:

Octek's DCA range of motherboards with Headland HT340 chipsets took advantage of EDRAM for one. I know because I own a Hippo VL+ with that chipset and it uses EDRAM. I believe HT342 also uses EDRAM.

Ah, that rings a bell! Thanks 😀

It also gave a good search term, which trawled up this:
Re: Interesting eBay pickup: Octek Hippo DCA1 board...

However... I discovered that the stuff had another use, and a much more common one: cache SIMMs on certain models of the DAC960 SCSI RAID controllers that were so popular in '90s s

Also good excuse to re-read the old RedHill stuff. DCA = EDRAM was the link I had never laid before. Suddenly seems to make (sort of) sense.