Robin4 wrote:

So there will be new ones produced?

No I don' think so, but it appears the latest revision has the flat ram socket. So if anyone gets one of the few latest adapters they'll fit flat. It still obscures the slot above however.

90° Angle adapters are $2 if you know where to look.

One might have to change the drills for the plastic notches in the design of the SIMMCon tho.

Why are they called 90 degree angle sockets?

blank001 wrote:

Why are they called 90 degree angle sockets?

Probably because they sit at a 90-degree angle on the PCB, that is the memory modules installed lay sideways and flat against the PCB instead of standing straight up.

kithylin wrote:

blank001 wrote:

Why are they called 90 degree angle sockets?

Probably because they sit at a 90-degree angle on the PCB, that is the memory modules installed lay sideways and flat against the PCB instead of standing straight up.

Wait, shouldn't 90-degree ram brackets be the ones which sit perpendicular to the pcb? i.e. the ones standing at a right angle, i.e. the ram rotated 90 degrees at the axis that connects the ram to the pcb? Unless we're talking about 90-degrees to the motherboard pcb. Relative to the pcb there are two options: the ram which sit perpendicular to the pcb and the ram which sits parallel to the pcb. I suppose the issue is which pcb are we referring to?

Another possibility is the degree is actually referring to the socket itself rather than the angle of the ram. It's true that the ram socket itself sits perpendicular to the surface of the sound card pcb and the ram sits parallel. If that's the origin of the term then it makes much more sense.

Digikey named connectors as: "Standard", "22° Angle" and "Right Angle"
http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?pv88 … d=0&pageSize=25

5 minutes ago I finally got an update:

Hi Randy,
I finally got around to test the remaining adapters and will be listing the good ones on ebay.
You can use the keyword 'simmconn' to search for the listing.
Thank you for your interest.

Regards,
Xu Wang

EDIT #1: I've searched and not seen anything in ebay yet, but I'm tired and heading to sleep. I'll edit post with a ebay link if they show up later today after sleep.

Are we talking about the SimmConn of which I bought one some time ago here: http://simmconn.tripod.com/ ? Because if so, they're still listed as available. And the PCB schematics and GAL code are available in the downloads section. The GAL code comes with source, it's for a widely-available and cheap device 16V8; there's also some code for a "universal" GAL that would likely work in both the value and the gold edition cards with the note that it's untested. Nothing needs to be reverse-engineered as he has made available everything one would need to replicate his cards.

(edit) Ohh, it lets you add one to the cart, but when you want to pay for it you get an error message. So it's true that his stock is out.

stamasd wrote:

Are we talking about the SimmConn of which I bought one some time ago here: http://simmconn.tripod.com/ ? Because if so, they're still listed as available. And the PCB schematics and GAL code are available in the downloads section. The GAL code comes with source, it's for a widely-available and cheap device 16V8; there's also some code for a "universal" GAL that would likely work in both the value and the gold edition cards with the note that it's untested. Nothing needs to be reverse-engineered as he has made available everything one would need to replicate his cards.

(edit) Ohh, it lets you add one to the cart, but when you want to pay for it you get an error message. So it's true that his stock is out.

That is the one and the same.

I also sent one final confirmation to this Xu Wang guy, asking if any more will ever be produced in the world, and this was his response:

Hi Randy,
I'm afraid so. Manufacturing cost in China has gone up a lot in the past 17 years. It is also difficult to justify the time and effort to remake these.

Regards,
Xu Wang

So this is it. When he puts these up for sale, this is the last one ever sold in the history of the world, unless someone else takes the plans and source and produces more.

I still can not find anything on ebay about them, yet. So.. I suppose I might wait a few more days and if they don't show up in the search system, ask him directly for an ebay link. He seems like a nice, approachable guy.

You make it sound very apocalyptic... it's not the end of the world. It's a very open design, he was cool to provide all the data needed for someone to replicate his design, even improve on it... think getting rid of the simm altogether, and using RAM soldered to the PCB. I have priced the PCB to a board manufacturer in China, it would come to about $5 per board in quantities of 20 or more, even cheaper in larger volumes. Plus another $10 or so in parts, you would get close to his price. Programming a GAL is easy, almost all modern programmers can do it. especially beneficial if the "universal" GAL code is tested and found to work for both the Gold and Value editions.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/131614348790
Seems to have been up for a while (?).

And a bunch of the Value version has already sold last week... 😒
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SIMMCONN-Adapter-Crea … n-/131611948065

stamasd wrote:

You make it sound very apocalyptic... it's not the end of the world. It's a very open design, he was cool to provide all the data needed for someone to replicate his design, even improve on it... think getting rid of the simm altogether, and using RAM soldered to the PCB. I have priced the PCB to a board manufacturer in China, it would come to about $5 per board in quantities of 20 or more, even cheaper in larger volumes. Plus another $10 or so in parts, you would get close to his price. Programming a GAL is easy, almost all modern programmers can do it. especially beneficial if the "universal" GAL code is tested and found to work for both the Gold and Value editions.

I am interested in 2x Value and 2x Gold adapters! 😀

^^ Damn, I would have grabbed another Value adapter but it looks like he already sold out. Glad I ordered mine last year!

Regarding a potential re-pro:
I support the idea of using soldered (or socketed!) DRAM chips rather than SIMMs. A lower-profile card would be nice to fit in smaller machines (especially portables!), and decent 72-pin SIMMs are getting really hard to find. I'd be in for one or two if someone makes up a batch!

Hi Guys,
Glad to join the discussion!
It was the summer break after my first year in grad school when I started the SIMMConn design. At the time the AWE64 was the cream of the crop of sound cards. I couldn't afford the Gold version, let alone the Creative memory modules. Using the 72-pin SIMM seems to be the most economical way to put more memory on the AWE64.

Unlike the Creative memory module which is a straight-forward design, there is some more work to do in order to accommodate a SIMM. The SIMM has 32-bit data bus, whereas the EMU-8000 uses 16-bit. I would need to multiplex the 32-bit memory into the 16-bit bus base on the address range EMU-8000 accesses. At the same time, the memory refresh command needs to be duplicated to the other half of memory that's not being accessed, otherwise the content in the memory will be lost. I managed to squeeze all the logic into a GAL device and made the first prototype.

I convinced my dad that people who are like me would buy these. With the investment from him I had 500 pieces of adapters made (250 of Value and 250 of Gold), with printed manuals and nice looking, colorful retail packaging. It turned out to be the worst investment he has ever made. The AWE64 was soon replaced by the PCI sound cards. After the first 50 or so, the quarterly sales of the adapter dropped to near zero. Interestingly, sales slowly picked up after around 2005, and 2014 was the best year until the stock ran out.

Around the time the prototype was finished, I found the AWE-SIMM website by Jeff Briden and had some good email conversations with him. Apparently his adapter was based on the same principle but in a slightly different implementation. Memory expansion was fixed at 16MB and DIP parts were used which are more DIY-friendly. Inspired by his openness about his design, I decided to open my design as well and posted all the manufacturing files on the website.

The PCB is a simple 2-sided board and all the parts are easy to get except the 2mm pitch dual-row receptacles that mate with the headers on the AWE64. I custom-ordered them from Taiwan. The PCB was designed to accommodate both straight and right-angled SIMM sockets with no modification needed. At the time I was not able to find a right-angled one. It turns out even with a right-angled one the stacked height is still too tall. To tuck all the memory within the allowed space of an ISA card, one would have to go with the Creative memory module approach and have the memory chips soldered on the module.

All the adapters were supposed to be tested in 1998 and I had no idea why I ended up with a box of untested SIMMConn Gold. My apologies go to everyone who asked about it in the past year or so, for the long delay. I was finally able to test all of them and most of them are good. So here they are again on ebay. There should be enough for everyone in this thread. Unfortunately the last shipment of Value boards was inadequately packaged and every board suffered some damage. I picked the ones in fair to good conditions and they are mostly gone now.

Please feel free to use the design files to run another production. One should be able to make it a wash for a group buy in the neighborhood of 25. I’m not planning on doing it myself, as I have other projects in desperate need of my time. Anyone who’s willing to take the plunge and do it, feel free to contact me if you have any technical questions.

I’d like to say thanks to everyone who inquired or ordered a SIMMConn at some point of time in the past 17 years. Having satisfied customers around the globe is the best reward I can possibly get for the effort I spent on this project.

Best regards,
Xu Wang

Xu Wang,

I would like to thank you on behalf of the retrogaming community for your project. I'm one of those who ordered a SIMMconn value from you in 2014, and have been using it ever since. Thank you for making your design open, because I am sure it will be picked up and actualized.

Speaking of which, do you have any details about the AWE-SIMM adapter? Even the Internet Archive doesn't have much information about it.

Hey, welcome to the board! 😁

I've been getting great mileage out of the two (1 value, 1 gold) SIMMconns I bought from you in 2013/14. I use AWE64s in my dedicated MIDI sequencer / music production workstation and there is really no substitute. And adding a big stick of RAM is virtually mandatory. Just so you know some of your old boards have become gainfully employed, 15 years after the fact. 😁

I *was* curious if all of those left were the original production run. You never know if a niche product like that is going to take off or not. Thanks for having the gumption to get them made in the first place!

stamasd wrote:

Xu Wang,

I would like to thank you on behalf of the retrogaming community for your project. I'm one of those who ordered a SIMMconn value from you in 2014, and have been using it ever since. Thank you for making your design open, because I am sure it will be picked up and actualized.

Speaking of which, do you have any details about the AWE-SIMM adapter? Even the Internet Archive doesn't have much information about it.

You are very welcome.

Regarding AWE-SIMM, I'll have to dig into my old files and see if I have anything. I remember it uses the buffers and GAL chip in DIP package and no jumper. Once you adopt the same architecture, there's really not much variations you can have on the hardware implementation, hence the high level of similarity between AWE-SIMM and SIMMConn.

@SIMMconn

I am sorry to hear that you've invested so much and got so little out of it.
Last year I also ordered one of your AWE Value adapters.
Unfortunately I was not able to order a gold edition, it would have gone into my ultimate 1997 build (My Socket 7 "1997" Project)
It's great that you have made your project open. I really hope someone will pick it up and produce a new batch.

Thank you for your outstanding effort that made this product happen.

I'll keep an eye on the rest of them as they come up; I need something halfway reasonably priced. The prices on AWE64 memory solutions have gone through the roof and it's showing in this SIMMConn auction, too.

Xu Wang,

Sorry about not linking you directly to the thread. I didn't think you were interested in communicating with us, or I would of linked it to you. But turned out you found it anyway, so it worked out 😀 I'm the one that's been emailing you about it most recently.

I've been wondering if someone could come up with a design similar to creative's original, with the ram modules soldered on to the PCB and save space in a system. I have one of your simmconn's in one of my retro gaming machines, and had put it on a awe64 gold I sold to a friend a few years ago too. So your creations have found their 'forever homes' and will be used by people for a long time.

If anyone else on the forums here ever did a small production run of something similar of these some day, maybe put a poll out and get people to sign something to commit to buy for 25-50 of em, I would be interested.

Also I never knew there was a retail package for your simmconn. Any chance you could come up with a photo of what it looked like and show some of us that are just curious?