DRAMs to expand this ET4000/W32p board to 2MB? \ VOGONS

DRAMs to expand this ET4000/W32p board to 2MB?

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First post, by blakespot

Posted on 2013-12-01, 16:33

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Hey folks,

I have just won this auction on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/370912786816

It's a Cardex ("Challenger," I believe) VLB video card with a Tseng ET4000/W32p and 1MB FPM DRAM onboard. There are four surface-mounted v53c8256hk45 chips which are 256x8 units. There are also four 24-pin DIP sockets for DRAM expansion.

Does anyone have any idea where I can source 24-pin (which seems odd for DRAM), compatible DIPs? I'd like to take the board to 2MB.

Thanks.

:: Visit the Byte Cellar, my vintage computer blog (since 2004).
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Reply 1 of 9, by blakespot

Posted on 2013-12-01, 19:41

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Apparently I need V53C8256HP45 odd-ball, 24-pin DRAMs, as seen in this shot:

https://picasaweb.google.com/misterzeropage/M … 213357812243922

Info: http://www.datasheetarchive.com/V53C8256HP45-datasheet.html

Might be hard to find... Apparently the RAMDAC is less quality than the one on the Hercules Dynamite Power.

:: Visit the Byte Cellar, my vintage computer blog (since 2004).
:: See a panorama of my own Byte Cellar (a.k.a. basement computer room)...
:: twitter: @blakespot

Reply 2 of 9, by luckybob

Posted on 2013-12-01, 21:47

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ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/130823299811

but the price seems a bit high...

Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them. - Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam

Reply 3 of 9, by Anonymous Coward

Posted on 2013-12-01, 22:31

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I think the RAMDAC on that one is the same as the Hercules.

The cardex in that photo is slightly better than mine.

"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium

Reply 4 of 9, by Logistics

Posted on 2013-12-01, 23:35

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You can order them as an End User from Quest components for $3 and change, BUT your order has to be 24.99 or higher so it sort of defeats the purpose unless you want to order other stuff from them.

Reply 5 of 9, by blakespot

Posted on 2013-12-02, 13:08

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Logistics wrote:
You can order them as an End User from Quest components for $3 and change, BUT your order has to be 24.99 or higher so it sort of defeats the purpose unless you want to order other stuff from them.

Thanks! I ordered 11 ($25.30)... I will list the unused items on eBay, I suppose.

This should get me a 2MB ET4000/W32p similar in performance to the Hercules Dynamite Power I enjoyed back in 1994. It's DOS performance I want, but I recall having no gripes about the board's performance in Win95 and Linux (well, aside from the fact that I had to purchase AcceleratedX, a commercial Xserver to get full res and color depth out of the board).

:: Visit the Byte Cellar, my vintage computer blog (since 2004).
:: See a panorama of my own Byte Cellar (a.k.a. basement computer room)...
:: twitter: @blakespot

Reply 6 of 9, by blakespot

Posted on 2013-12-02, 15:38

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Wow. Sierra IC has them for $30 per chip...

:: Visit the Byte Cellar, my vintage computer blog (since 2004).
:: See a panorama of my own Byte Cellar (a.k.a. basement computer room)...
:: twitter: @blakespot

Reply 7 of 9, by PeterLI

Posted on 2013-12-02, 18:26

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Interesting. I found out the hard way that VRAM chips are not generic like SIMMs. I bought a S3 PCI card with VRAM chips. I then tried installing them in the sockets on a MOBO of a Digital and a HP but both did not work with them. 😠

Reply 8 of 9, by Logistics

Posted on 2014-01-15, 15:49

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Blakespot, did this end up working? I'm hoping it was a success.

Reply 9 of 9, by blakespot

Posted on 2014-01-15, 21:02

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I have the DRAMs in hand, but am doing more basic system setup right now. I upgraded mono cache to 256MB...

https://twitter.com/blakespot/status/422440489162645504

...and am trying to get SCSI disks sorted.

https://twitter.com/blakespot/status/422455555127775232

Last step will be to update the board to 2MB.

At first the board did not work at all. Then I noticed a 3-pin jumper, with pins 2-3 crossed. I assumed that was a 1 or 2MB select and moved the jumper to 1-2 and it worked. Apparently the seller harvested the board of its socketed DRAM before selling. 😀

https://twitter.com/blakespot/status/422125957106110464

:: Visit the Byte Cellar, my vintage computer blog (since 2004).
:: See a panorama of my own Byte Cellar (a.k.a. basement computer room)...
:: twitter: @blakespot

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