Have an intel 2meg 16 bit memory card. The closest thing I could find on stason.org was an aboveboard AT, however the DIP settings didn't seem to coincide with mine. After messing around and swapping out a bad ram chip I have the full 2MEG ontop of an IBM 128/640 that is fully loaded (128k+512k) for a grand total of 3200K on the 5170 memory count. No POST errors, all RAM passes. The following DIP switch settings were used..
SW1 off,off,on,off,on,on,off,off SW2 on,off,off,off,on,on,on,on

😎 Same method, next card with 2 MB...:

I have seen this logo on the card somewhere before...anybody recognizes it? No other label on the card.

But "code" is easy: One DIP-block with 8 switches (1-8), and one with 4 (A-D).

For XMS, A-D always "0100".
12345678 ABCD
01001000 0100 11,384 MB
01011000 0100 10,384 MB
01011010 0100 10,256 MB
01111010 0100 8,256 MB

..therefore the one I am looking for is esay as the DIPs can be assigned to the AT-Rambank...:
11101000 0100 1,384 MB

...and my Mainboard with 1 MB onboard detects 3 MB of RAM 😀

Does not really fit in my thread but I like to share some data about my Intel Above Board Plus 8, which was included in my most recent scrap lot. Not much to find about its features. This board is jumperless and configured with a very nice driver software, which I found here:

http://ibm-pc.org/drivers/memory/memory.htm

Configuration is done with setboard.exe. It detects the card with its serial numer and lets you choose if you like to configure it as conventional memory or extended memory XMS. If you like to use expanded memory EMS, choose none of these options.

To use EMS in that case, you have to emm.sys like...
device=emm.sys AT 208 EXPF=C800 EXPL=D800
...as shown in the included readme.

Output of the device driver:

Working and very nice!

Next one 😀 This card is also no-name, labeled "Copyright 1989 P/N 3000". It has 2 p4C116-20pc CMOS-RAMs onboard. Maybe to store configuration data. Jumpers are more or less labeled. With the method described at the top I figured out that SW1 has the same setting as SW2 of the AT-Rambank in XMS-mode.

The configuration shown on the photo (00010001) sets the starting adress to 1.0 M and adds 8 MB of RAM to my Suntac 80286 with 640 kb onboard 😀

EMS configuration will be more difficult. Maybe somebody else has this board with drivers?

Predator99 wrote:

Benchmark would be interesting. Do you know a Software...? It needs to draw a diagram KB vs. speed to discriminate between the o […]
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mrau wrote:

it's not uninteresting, just no hardware here to play with;
would You be able to test how speed is influenced by isa? access times are of interest too.
i understand that this works without drivers only on 286, right?

Benchmark would be interesting. Do you know a Software...? It needs to draw a diagram KB vs. speed to discriminate between the onboard an the ISA XMS. I dont know such program for a 286.

Yes, 286 is the main target. On a XT you cant use the 16-bit cards. There are 8-bit cards around, but as far as I know they are only for filling the RAM below 1MB.
On a 386 these cards should run. But you dont need them as there is usually enough RAM onboard and you can switch between XMS and EMS with the EMM386 driver.

An exception on the matter is the Intel above board with that `bridge` chip installed. But regular 16-bit cards are only designed to work on AT class systems.

So normally they would use XT or X for 8bit cards. And AT for AT board. The fact of the matter that is that AT boards would only works stable / without any problems on slower class 286 systems. Iam guessing that the boundary is till 286 12mhz..

16, 20, 25mhz should to be fast to use these expension cards with.

There are 8-bit cards around, but as far as I know they are only for filling the RAM below 1MB.

That last isnt true, most of these cards where used to add only EMS memory to the system. And in that period of time they where also used for a printer spooler (so to give the printer an bigger memory backup to store more documents at once for printing out.
There was also an option to create a RAM drive for fast accessing files / data.. And there was also an conventional memory backfill option, when you bought in that time a machine with an motherboard that only could address a max of 256KB of memory.. On these systems you had to backfill it to get the max of 640KB of memory.

And yes there where also backfill only cards.. These had a lot smaller pcb and mostly could resident 384Kb- or 512KB of memory.. Sometimes these boards where coupled with an multi io section, like the ast rampage card.

Predator99 wrote:

Same method, next card :-) "2M-EMS GA-229" […]
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Same method, next card 😀
"2M-EMS GA-229"

IMG_0155.JPG

Left block ("SW2") 1-7 correspond to DFI AT-RAMBANK SW2 S1-S7 for starting adress selection.
SW2-8: off

Right block ("SW1"): set all to on

...and you get 2MB XMS 😀

And the end I will combine all my cards to get 8MB in total in a 286 😉

EDIT: This card seems to be 100% compatible to the AT-Rambank. EMS configuration and driver is also working. Manual (http://minuszerodegrees.net/manuals.htm) + Driver (https://www.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php … driverid=210997) attached as backup...

DFI AT RAMBANK - ATRAM401 (1).ZIP

AT-RAMBANK Users Manual.pdf

Iam guessing that the brand could be Gigabyte.. Because almost a decade they using GA- xxxx on their products.. So i think this wouldnt be an exception

Bought another board to play with: "MC-M410", comes with 3.5 MB RAM. Has only one configuration-DIP with 8 switches.

Its the same one as mentioned here
http://oldcomputer.info/pc/board_mem/index.htm
www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?5100 ... emory-card
Both dont know how to get it running.

Fully decoded that nice card now - was fun 😉

DIP 1: set to 1 (0 for EMS mode???)

DIP 2345: Memory base
0000 7,5 MB
0001 7,0 MB
0010 6,5 MB
0011 6,0 MB
0100 5,5 MB
0101 5,0 MB
0110 4,5 MB
0111 4,0 MB
1101 1,0 MB
1011 2,0 MB
...etc

DIP 678: Installed RAM size
111 0.5MB
110 1.0MB
101 1.5MB
011 2.0MB
001 3.5MB

Examples:
11101001 for 640 KB base memory on Mainboard and 3,5 MB on card (RAM start at 1.0 MB)
10111001 for 4 MB base memory on Mainboard and 3,5 MB on card

THX Predator99, i have exactly same card 😀 looks like chinese copy without FCC ID looks simmilar like the frist one 16M card, many thx for jumper settings 😀

Predator99 wrote on 2018-09-08, 14:36:

...
FCC ID: FIF48G PE505-16M
ZERO MADE IN TAIWAN

i have same card fully populated with 256 chips, jumper settings not working for me!

memory start address maybe works, but there is mapped only half megabyte ?! 1 BANK and does not works correctly, i have tested all 256 chips and they are ok, so i guess SW1 can control bank enable disable?!

Yes, I also think SW1 is for setting the RAM size. Its up to you to find out the setting the way I did 😉

Hi all,

I have exactly the same card. ( 2M-EMS GA-229 ) Luckily, the harddisk in de PC that came with it also works.
Attached the original directory with drivers.

HOWEVER: I have no clue on the driver settings. The tools seem to be able to search addresses for memory cards however..
config.sys is of no help either, no stuff loaded here.

Best regards,
Maarten

Found also some drivers (for a 4MB EMS card, which is actually working).
Drivers name is Everex, possibly same brand as the card.
Actually comes with a useful readme.

My config.sys only states:
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EVEREX\EMM.SYS

Card is automatically found and 256 pages of memory been tested.

Secondly I found a directory with drivers for a MFM/RLL harddisk and floppy controller board from the brand ' perstor '.
Including tools or parking and initial setup. Hopefully useful to anyone.

Thirdly a full driver for the 16 bit ISA card, OAK VGA800 16-color display based on a Trident chip. Including drivers for Autocad, GEM and such.

Thank you very much for sharing this! I also look for such drivers when I get an old harddisk.

The Everex driver seems to be for the EV-159. Drivers and docs are already available here:
http://minuszerodegrees.net/manuals.htm#Everex

The other one for the 2M-EMS GA-229 seems not to be available so far. I will test your drivers when I have the card on my desk again.

Nice test program @Topic starter. But the archive seems te be broken / bad.

I will do a reupload.

I was able to get this 80 Data branded 2mb card working in my compaq portable II following your instructions. Like yours the switch settings were opposite of the DFI AT-Rambank.

Works well!! Thanks for your hard work on this I think it will open up a lot of options for people!

Thanks for your feedback! Can you provide a picture with the card removed? Or is yours already discussed in this thread?

Nice monitor 😉

Predator99 wrote on 2018-09-08, 14:36:

I am surprised nobody else is interested in this topic. Maybe you trashed your cards long ago and now you are annoyed :-p :-p :- […]
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I am surprised nobody else is interested in this topic. Maybe you trashed your cards long ago and now you are annoyed :-p :-p :-p

This card is more difficult:
FCC ID: FIF48G PE505-16M
ZERO MADE IN TAIWAN

IMG_0157.JPG

SW1 SW2
123456 12345678

With 256k chips:
11111x 11x1xxxx 1,0 M
11111x 1111xxxx 1,00 M
11111x x111xxxx 1,256 M
11111x x1x1xxxx 1,256 M
11111x 1x11xxxx 1,512 M
11111x xx11xxxx 1,896 M
11111x 11111xxx 2,0 M
11111x 11x11xxx 2.0M
11111x x1111xxx 2.256
11111x x1x11xxx 2,256 M
11111x xx111xxx 2,384 M
11111x xxx11xxx 2.384M
11111x 1x111xxx 2,5 M
11111x 1111xxxx 3.0M
11111x 1x1111xx 4.5M
11111x 11x11xx1 10.0M
11111x xxx1xxxx 1,384 M
11111x x11x1xxx n/a
11111x 11x111xx 4,0 M
11111x 11x1111x 8,0
11111x 1x1111x1 n/a
11111x 11x111x1 12,0

____
Therefore for SW2:
1-2: Lo bits:
0 k 11x
0 k 111
256 k x11
256 k x1x
384 k xx1 (same as 896?)
384 k xxx
512 k 1x1
896 k xx1

4: No impact? Set to 1.

5-8: Hi bits (t=tested, others calculated):
1 M xxxx (t)
2 M 1xxx (t)
3 M x1xx
4 M 11xx (t)
5 M xx1x
6 M 1x1x
7 M x11x
8 M 111x (t)
9 M xxx1
10 M 1xx1
11 M x1x1
12 M 11x1 (t)
13 M xx11
14 M 1x11
15 M x111

Hello, someone try to use this card on a motherboard with 1M ram installed ?

I got this BOCA RESEARCH "8 MEG AT RAM" card. It is also labeled as "QuadRAM AT plus". It can be configured with the BOCARAM/AT PLUS drivers. Also the EMS driver works.

The driver seems to support 4 cards (# seems to be selectable with jumper J1) with 8 MB each. Each card can be freely configured to use XMS or EMS.

Great card, great features 😀

Driver:

Would you guys be willing to provide some cachechk screenshots of your systems with your ISA memory expansion card installed? I recently installed a 3MB 16-bit Everex memory expansion card to my 286, which has an SLC2-66 upgrade chip installed, and I noticed that the read speed of memory in the address region of the expansion card's memory is about half the speed as the motherboard's memory. Have you been noticing a similar phenomena?

Is there any way to speed up the read/write speed of the memory on the expansion card? There is only one speed jumper on the card, which is for if you have 120 ns or faster DRAM installed. I have 70 ns DRAM installed on the expansion card (3MB) and on the motherboard (4 MB). The Doom benchmark results are slower with the expansion card installed, i.e. 11004 realtics vs. 10389 realtics.

Here are some screenshots demonstrating the memory slow downs. If maximum performance is what you're after, these expansion cards seem kind of pointless. Are some better than others in this regard?