Can anyone of you measure the height of a few ordinary SIMM sticks for me (metric pls)? Eagle just has footprints for tiny ones. I've guess-timated something, but want to make sure everything works out.
(I'm awesome and just have a single 4MB SIMM72 stick here - unless I took my testbox apart)
Can anyone of you measure the height of a few ordinary SIMM sticks for me (metric pls)? Eagle just has footprints for tiny ones. I've guess-timated something, but want to make sure everything works out.
(I'm awesome and just have a single 4MB SIMM72 stick here - unless I took my testbox apart)
72-PIN SIMMS are a little over 2.5cm in height (like 2.51 ). I just measured a few of them, and all of them are extremely close 2.5cm (how wide is the width of the mark??? 🤣)
386DX-40MHz-8MB-540MB+428MB+Speedstar64@2MB+SoundBlaster Pro+MT-32/MKII
486DX2-66Mhz-16MB-4.3GB+SpeedStar64 VLB DRAM 2MB+AWE32/SB16+SCB-55 MY BLOG RETRO PC BLOG: https://bitbyted.wordpress.com/
It's just there in case anyone wants to use that for some reason instead of the SIMM72 so there's no major part of the PCB unused.
If I run out of space or someone has another idea what to do within that area - I'd have no problem to remove one or both SOJ footprints.
I have one of those here 😀 Sadly non-working but it helped me reverse the DIP footprint for the rom and the ROM itself is on the way to Marmes for getting read out.
I think I will take a few days off from the project - really getting tired of the signal juggling for now (moving components so the SIMM bar fits). Which is okay I guess - so I can resume once the ROMs have been dumped.
Just a small heads up - the SIMM72 socket is fully attached now and the PnP-ROM moved so it doesn't interfere with SIMM sticks (I'll add options for adding straight, 45° and 90° SIMM72 slots).
If anyone knows any software requiring a 1MB GUS Classic (!) please give me a heads up, as i'd like to test if those work as well (there's word around the InterWave just supports 512kb in UltraSound mode - which I couldn't verify yet).
I'll write another blog post summing up the current status later on today.
Awesome work Shock! Thanks for the updates. I've never had a GUS, so I'm not familiar with any games requiring the 1MB GUS classic.
Keep up the great work! 😎
386DX-40MHz-8MB-540MB+428MB+Speedstar64@2MB+SoundBlaster Pro+MT-32/MKII
486DX2-66Mhz-16MB-4.3GB+SpeedStar64 VLB DRAM 2MB+AWE32/SB16+SCB-55 MY BLOG RETRO PC BLOG: https://bitbyted.wordpress.com/
From what I've seen an InterWave card with 4 banks of at least 256kb RAM seem to be compatible with the classic Ultrasound cards @ 1MB.
Tested that with a random demo requiring 1MB and UtraDRV (GUS sample RAM as a RAM-Disk under DOS) yesterday - still want to make sure that works.
On another note - I might be able to get a classic GUS for testing with quite a history, Abyss^FC is giving his original 1993 GUS away, which ran Second Reality before it was officially released 😀
On another note - I might be able to get a classic GUS for testing with quite a history, Abyss^FC is giving his original 1993 GUS away, which ran Second Reality before it was officially released 😀
Picked up the AM78C201AKC chips - just had to pay the usual 19% sales taxes for goods coming from outside the EU, no customs. http://i.imgur.com/hLTqYis.jpg
On another note - I might be able to get a classic GUS for testing with quite a history, Abyss^FC is giving his original 1993 GUS away, which ran Second Reality before it was officially released 😀
That would be a pretty cool collector piece of computer history.
A suggestion on the current http://i.imgur.com/oRtAm9f.png Reduce the unused area, by making a cutout in the final pcb,
the purpose of which is to reduce any chance that the pcb will
intrude onto or close to motherboard components (capacitor tops,
insertable bios ROM, coils, etc.). {So reduces likelihood of;
"Gee - I would have preferred to place the card in ISA slot N,
but there was a tall component blocking the overhang there so
I had to put the card in a less desired slot..." 😢 }.
A cutout will also act to usefully provide additional separation
of the pcb planes from any RF emitted by various motherboard
components. (Orange or grey line shows cutout area, below left;)
Like grey line straight cutout, or orange line curved cut to give easier 'fingertip grip' when removing pcb from slot. Note; cut begins outwards, slightly away from corner where slot extension joins pcb body, so as not to weaken the right angle location where the slot extension joins the pcb body.
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception
If the fabrication company cannot action the cutout without
undesireably adding to the price, perhaps a line of through
holes nearly touching each other, would serve as a last ditch
option allowing someone to gently connect (saw through) the
holes, so as to clear any obstacle, if it turns out that your
preferred motherboard, (perhaps with only one ISA slot) won't
allow fitment of the length of the pcb... .
---------
Another suggestion; include a slight vertical separation between each horizontal set of jumpers for each of banks 0, 1, 2 and 3. (JP7)
The reason is so that each horizontal jumper will still be able to be set
'as desired' for each individual bank - BUT with the vertical separation
of each set of bank jumpers, you ensure that there is no possibility
of a user accidently placing a jumper joiner which joins (vertically) pins
of any bank - this could conceivably cause damage to the ram (say, for
instance, that bank 0 and 1 highside potential pins {each leftmost pin? of
bank 0 and 1} were inappropriately joined by a jumper placed accidently
vertically across those two pins).
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
ROLL ON THE 'GUSONAISSANCE' !!
The suggestion with the bank jumpers is good and will most likely be included, not that misplacing them would matter in most cases (I guess tying the !BKSEL* lines on the InterWave together might, the others certainly wouldn't).
About the cut-out, yes the card being "overlength" (at least when taking the ISA socket as a reference) might be an issue on some mainboards BUT that's the mainboards fault - not mine. ISA spec is ~32cm in length with my current design being a bit less than 2/3 of that. If that were such an issue I could see people dumping their GUS classic/PnP cards (which are actually longer than the ARGUS) along with their LAPC-I cards 😀 The empty space will certainly be more or less usefully populated.
