1088K / hardware
From: Michael Current (aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Date: 10/24/92-05:46:53 PM Z
From: aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael Current)
Subject: 1088K / hardware
Date: Sat Oct 24 17:46:53 1992
Reprinted from Z*Magazine #208
The Newell 1088K
Review by Jeff McWilliams
Before acquiring a 1 meg plus 800XL, with memory busting out of the
seams everywhere, my 800XL had a RAMBO XL 256K upgrade in it. I was
happy with it because along with that I owned an ICD 1 meg MIO board.
My main storage media are 720K 3.5" disks, via the Innovative Concepts
modification for my single XF551 disk drive. The 1 meg RAMdisk in the
MIO was important to me, because without it, it was very difficult to
back up those 720K disks with only one drive. A special sector copier
would have been okay if I had wanted to do sector copies, but such was
usually not the case. By backing up the disks file by file, not only
would I get an emergency back up of the disk, but the new disk was
also unsegmented. That meant that unlike the original which could
have files scattered in pieces all over the disk, the backup has each
file stored one right after the other. This helps to increase the
disk access speed, because the disk drive doesn't spend all its time
searching the different sections of the disk looking for the file.
Some people wouldn't bother with worrying about disk segmentation
unless it were on hard disk where things can really get messed up.
Call me finicky. Onto the Newell 1088K... When I deciced to install
the Turbo816 16 bit card into my 800XL, I discovered my 800XL no
longer liked talking to the MIO. There are some problems with the
Parallel Bus after wiring in the T816 upgrade. Determined to stick
with the new 16 bit processor, I decided to dump the MIO, and sent my
800XL to Newell Industries to have them install the 1088K upgrade
they offer.
The board measures approximately 3.5" by 2 3/4". A little smaller
than those 720K floppies. The board holds the 8 1 meg RAM chips, plus
8 logic chips. There is a small cable attached to the board that
plugs into the first 64K RAM chip socket on the computer. The 64K RAM
chip is moved onto a socket on the Newell board. In addition are two
14 conductor ribbon cables connected to the Newell board. These
attach to various sites on the 800XL motherboard as well. That's
about 28 connections to wire. I'm not the greatest on keeping my
wiring straight, which is why I had Newell Industries wire in the
upgrade for me. There are three variations to the wiring that will
give you different degrees of compatibility with the 130XE. Mine is
wired so that both the CPU and ANTIC chip can see the extra memory.
In exchange, my internal BASIC is now wired to a toggle switch; it's
no longer software selectable.
The Newell 1088K package comes with a modified version of MYDOS,
version 4.5 M1. This version allows the access of 1 full megabyte of
RAMDISK. It also contains a sector copying program that utilizes all
that memory to copy up a 720K disk in a single pass.
If you're a SpartaDOS fan, you'll be pleased to know that there is 1
meg ramdisk driver on GEnie that will work with SpartaDOS 3.2d and the
Newell 1088K upgrade. SpartaDOS X automatically recognizes the extra
memory, and will report 64 banks free when the "MEM" command is
entered at the DOS prompt.
There are a few problems that I've encountered using the Newell 1088K.
Most seem to center around the use of the SpartaDOS X cartridge. The
first problem occurs upon booting up the computer. Often it will fail
to boot properly, and you have to power down and try again. I've also
encountered frequent lock-ups when trying to format a disk using the
"FORMAT" commmand of SpartaDOS X. Let me just repeat what I said
earlier about my 800XL though. It has a Turbo816 board installed into
it. In addition, it also has a Transkey keyboard interface which
allows me to type on this really nice Northgate keyboard. That's
quite a bit of hardware wired into one computer. I can't prove the
Newell 1088K is causing the problems, although they didn't happen when
the RAMBO XL was in its place. It could be a mixture of the Turbo816
and the Newell 1088K that is causing the problem. Remember the MIO
that didn't like the T816? Currently, I'm not willing to try removing
the Turbo816 to find out which upgrade may be the culprit. I'd have
more luck fixing a wristwatch with a cutting torch than I would
digging into my computer with a soldering iron. I do plan on talking
to both Newell Industries and Dataque Software, maker of the T816
board, to see if there may be a conflict between the two upgrades I
have in the computer.
I am glad I have the 1088K. There are a few kinks here and there;
otherwise it works as promised. Just after I got the computer up and
running I decided to back up my main SpartaDOS X work disk, which
contains that endless list of .COM files half of which I hardly ever
use. I found six files which were bad due to errors on the disk.
Luckily those were on an older backup, so I restored them promptly
after fixing the bad disk.
The Newell 1088K is available for the 130XE, the 1200XL, the 800XL,
and 65XE. To my knowledge, it is the only commercially available
1088K upgrade for the Atari 8 bits. I also believe it is the only
upgrade that will take a 1200XL beyond 256K. If you're still not
satisfied with 1088K, with slight modification you can install 4 meg
RAMS into the Newell 1088K and have a 4096K monster. For the price of
the 4 meg DRAM chips though, you'd be better off purchasing a hard
drive setup if possible on your system. That would depend on which
model computer you have. The 1088K cost me $49.95. Installation cost
$40.00. You can supply your own 1 meg DRAMS or have Newell Industries
supply them. Call for current prices on the RAM chips. Newell
Industries, P.O. Box 253, Wylie, TX, 75098. Phone 214-442-6612.
7
Press <CR> !
--
Michael Current, Cleveland Free-Net 8-bit Atari SIGOp
Carleton College, Northfield, MN, USA / UUCP: ...!umn-cs!ccnfld!currentm
Internet: currentm@carleton.edu / Cleveland Free-Net: aa700
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