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- Newsgroups: comp.sys.laptops
- Path: sparky!uunet!europa.asd.contel.com!howland.reston.ans.net!usc!news.service.uci.edu!ttinews!avatar!sorgatz
- From: sorgatz@avatar.tti.com (sorgatz)
- Subject: disk memory expansion for NEC Ultralite
- Message-ID: <1992Dec17.015654.17279@ttinews.tti.com>
- Sender: usenet@ttinews.tti.com (Usenet Admin)
- Nntp-Posting-Host: avatar.tti.com
- Organization: Transaction Technology, Inc.
- Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 01:56:54 GMT
- Lines: 52
-
- Ok, so I've been read-only here for 30 days, I haven't seen anything
- that mentions the NEC Ultralite...forgive me if this is an FAQ item,
- all advice gratefully accepted; advTHANKS!ance.
-
- <background>
- I have become the new owner of one of these beasts, it was a fair deal
- ($450) and I got the machine, a power pack, a battery, the 1.44Mb floppy
- drive and the nominal comm port cords/manuals. Ok so it's only a 10MHz
- v30 w/640KB and a CGA monochrome screen...perfect for doing some small
- documents/text stuff, some portable packet/rtty/fax/cw, etc...
- uhuh..that's what I thought...
-
- Now, down to business, the c: drive is actually CMOS RAM, it's got 1 Meg
- and supposidly it's expandable to 2 Meg. Yeah right! I call around, the
- news isn't all good:
-
- #1 NEC lists the 2 meg board for $3000.00! YES! NOT A TYPO! $3000.00!
- (like, who are they kidding??!!)
-
- #2 The after-market guys offer both a 2 meg and a 4 meg board; 2meg costs
- $300 and 4 meg is $500...yikes! Better than NEC, but still way out of
- line. Regular DRAM is about $40/meg in SIPP/SIMM's..assume 200% price
- for low-power CMOS DIPs...make it $80/meg...a 4 meg unit should cost
- $320 or so maximum, and that's still a ripoff!
-
- #3 I backup everything on my c: ramdrive and pull out the little memory
- board. No luck. The chips on mine have NO NUMBERS ON THEM! (I hate that
- kind of stuff!) There are just 8 chips, surface-mounted to one side of
- the board, and there seems to be solderpads on BOTH SIDES, so apparently
- one could add 8 more chips to go to 2 MB...so I instantly wonder:
-
- a) The chips must be 1m x 1, maybe there is a 4m x 1 that is pin compatible?
-
- b) Maybe I can piggyback a second set and kludge-in a chip-select line to
- take it out to 4 meg?
-
- c) Maybe both a and b ?? I.E. go to 16 meg using 4 sets of 8, that are 4m x 1??
- (Hmmmm...16 meg...make the damn thing almost as useful as my old 20Mb XT!)
-
- Obviously the chips are CMOS low-power which = expen$ive, but the question is
- How expensive? And what is the availability of those chips? And do I have to
- cut/jumper very much and where? Is it worth it? Is there an NEC Ultralite Users
- Group? Anyone got documentation on this beast, like a service manual? (My local
- NEC dealers *claim* that the stuff is not available to the public...uhuh!)
-
- ...So has anyone else been down this road??
-
-
- -Avatar-> (aka: Erik K. Sorgatz) KB6LUY +-------------------------+
- TTI(sorgatz@soldev.tti.com) * Think Eco, not EGO! *
- 3100 Ocean Park Blvd. Santa Monica, CA 90405 +-------------------------+
- (OPINIONS EXPRESSED DO NOT REFLECT THE VIEWS OF CITICORP OR ITS MANAGEMENT!)
-