Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!xanth!src
From: src@cs.odu.edu (Scott R. Chilcote)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Free RAM from Atari
Keywords: Santa Claus := Tramiel
Message-ID: <10085@xanth.cs.odu.edu>
Date: 3 Oct 89 17:37:58 GMT
Reply-To: src@cs.odu.edu
Distribution: usa
Organization: Old Dominion University, Norfolk Va.
Lines: 55



Sorry if this message is a repeat.  I was told that nobody saw it go by at
a couple of local nodes...
=============================================================================

  I opened my Mega 2 last week to install TOS 1.4, and discovered a TRULY 
AMAZING thing.  The machine had a complete set of RAM chips, a total of 
FOUR MEGABYTES worth, installed!!
 
  I was freaked out!  The machine was shipped in a Mega 2 box, and all of my 
system utilities agreed that it had two megabytes of RAM operating.  And 
yet, there, on the motherboard, I had thirty-two 1-meg RAM chips, FOUR MEGs 
worth!  (One strange thing about the computer, though -- it was supplied with
a Mega ST4 sticker on the front.  The bottom of the machine, however, had a
Mega 2 sticker.  The salesman told me that it was a mistake that had happened
on a couple of Mega 2s they'd been shipped.)
 
  Somehow, Atari had disabled the second bank of RAM and sold this unit as 
a two-megger!  The question was, how?  I looked at the board and the 
schematics, and found no handy jumpers, no labels of any kind.  It was even 
speculated that perhaps bad chips had been used.
 
  Not so!
 
  I took the board out completely and went over the bottom side.  After 
intensive searching, I found that the RAS2* line -- the Row Address Strobe 
for the upper banks of memory, had not been soldered.  I soldered.
 
  So, for the cost of soldering one pin of one IC to the motherboard,  I 
have a FOUR MEGABYTE computer!!
  
  THANKS, ATARI!  
 
  Next, I'm going to be peering around in there for a 25 MHz 68030 chip 
with some unsoldered leads!

-----------------------------------------
Usenet: src@xanth.UUCP
DDN:    src%xanth.cs.odu.edu 
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|| Usenet: src@xanth.UUCP         ||                                       ||
||   Arpa: src@xanth.cs.odu.edu   ||    Q: Why did the chicken cross the   ||
||  Earth: Scott R. Chilcote      ||       Moebus Strip?                   ||
||                                ||                                       ||
||     |||     "Sure, Jack, we    ||    A: To get to... er...  umm...      ||
||     |||   trust you.  But will ||                                       ||
||    / | \   will you respect us ||        -----=====#####=====-----      || 
||   /  |  \     in the morning?" ||                                       ||
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