24 Mar
2007
24 Mar
'07
11:09 p.m.
AlphaStation 500's are less expensive, but be aware the memory is unusual.
Form factor 168pin dimm, 5v, FPM. The machine has two banks, each requires
4 dimms per bank. I have not been able to find any of these dimms. The AS500/400
I currently have, has both banks filled with 8x64M dimms (512M), the way it was
configured when I received it.
Dan @ Butler, PA
26 Mar
26 Mar
3:01 p.m.
On Sun, 25 Mar 2007 01:09:51 -0500
"Dan Snyder" <ddsnyder at zoominternet.net> wrote:
Form factor 168pin dimm, 5v, FPM. The machine has two
banks, each
requires 4 dimms per bank. I have not been able to find any of these
dimms.
Hmmm. IIRC some PowerMacs used that type of memory too, as well as the
Sun SPARCstation 4/5. In contrast: 3.3 V EDO DIMMs are quite common.
--
tsch??,
Jochen
Homepage: http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/
27 Mar
27 Mar
1:29 a.m.
On 26/3/07 22:01, "Jochen Kunz" <jkunz at unixag-kl.fh-kl.de> wrote:
On Sun, 25 Mar 2007 01:09:51 -0500
"Dan Snyder" <ddsnyder at zoominternet.net> wrote:
I checked the compaq PROSIC CD yesterday and I'm sure it didn't say anything
odd about the AS500 memory apart from the rules on bank filling; if I get
the chance today I'll make sure.
Cheers
A
--
Adrian/Witchy
Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator
Www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?
Form factor 168pin dimm, 5v, FPM. The machine has
two banks, each
requires 4 dimms per bank. I have not been able to find any of these
dimms.
Hmmm. IIRC some PowerMacs used that type of memory too, as well as the
Sun SPARCstation 4/5. In contrast: 3.3 V EDO DIMMs are quite common. 
10 a.m.
At 8:29 AM +0000 3/27/07, Adrian Graham wrote:
On 26/3/07 22:01, "Jochen Kunz" <jkunz at
unixag-kl.fh-kl.de> wrote:
The 266Mhz and 333Mhz model AS500 and the 400Mhz and 500Mhz model of
AS500 apparently use different spec'd RAM.
I don't believe the old 5V Mac RAM (8500 era), Sun Sparc 4/5, and
AlphaStation 500 RAM is compatible, but I might be wrong. It would
be interesting to know.
Zane
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
On Sun, 25 Mar 2007 01:09:51 -0500
"Dan Snyder" <ddsnyder at zoominternet.net> wrote:
I checked the compaq PROSIC CD yesterday and I'm sure it didn't say anything
odd about the AS500 memory apart from the rules on bank filling; if I get
the chance today I'll make sure. Form factor 168pin dimm, 5v, FPM. The machine
has two banks, each
requires 4 dimms per bank. I have not been able to find any of these
dimms.
Hmmm. IIRC some PowerMacs used that type of memory too, as well as the
Sun SPARCstation 4/5. In contrast: 3.3 V EDO DIMMs are quite common. 
11:22 a.m.
Adrian Graham wrote:
I have an AS500/500 on the bench and a handful of 5V FPM DIMMs from a
PM8500 in the drawer. I'll pop the top off the Alpha later and compare.
If they're compatible, that'd be *way* too easy.
Doc
On 26/3/07 22:01, "Jochen Kunz" <jkunz at
unixag-kl.fh-kl.de> wrote:
Hmmm. IIRC
some PowerMacs used that type of memory too, as well as the
Sun SPARCstation 4/5. In contrast: 3.3 V EDO DIMMs are quite common.
I checked the compaq PROSIC CD yesterday and I'm sure it didn't say anything
odd about the AS500 memory apart from the rules on bank filling; if I get
the chance today I'll make sure.
3:52 p.m.
Adrian Graham wrote:
I have an AS500/500 on the bench and a handful of 5V FPM DIMMs from a
PM8500 in the drawer. I'll pop the top off the Alpha later and compare.
If they're compatible, that'd be *way* too easy.
I'm more interested in knowing if the DIMM's from a PowerMac 8500/180 will
work in an AlphaStation 500/333! If they do I, I'm not sure what my
reaction will be... I suspect it will be a mixture of seriously ticked off,
and a bit happy. Though I can't remember how many DIMM's are in my 8500,
the 128MB I added might be a pair of 64Mb DIMM's. Even 1 128Mb kit, or 1
256Mb kit would make the system usable (right now it has 1 64Mb kit and 1
32Mb kit). The only thing is, as I have a PWS 433au, and a spare
XP1000/500, it wouldn't make any real sense to spend money to get it up and
running.
I wonder how much RAM is in my Sparc 5....
BTW, I did some Googling. It looks like this might work, *IF* you have
parity RAM in the donor Mac, but apparently that's pretty rare. It looks
like a Sparc 5 might make a better donor.
Zane
On 26/3/07 22:01, "Jochen Kunz"
<jkunz at unixag-kl.fh-kl.de> wrote:
Hmmm.
IIRC some PowerMacs used that type of memory too, as well as the
Sun SPARCstation 4/5. In contrast: 3.3 V EDO DIMMs are quite common.
I checked the compaq PROSIC CD yesterday and I'm sure it didn't say anything
odd about the AS500 memory apart from the rules on bank filling; if I get
the chance today I'll make sure. 
4 p.m.
On Mar 27, 2007, at 6:52 PM, Zane H. Healy wrote:
I can tell you for sure that SPARCstation-5 DIMMs do not work in a
PowerMac 7500/8500 series motherboard. I tried awfully hard..
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
I have an
AS500/500 on the bench and a handful of 5V FPM DIMMs
from a
PM8500 in the drawer. I'll pop the top off the Alpha later and
compare.
If they're compatible, that'd be *way* too easy.
I'm more interested in knowing if the DIMM's from a PowerMac
8500/180 will
work in an AlphaStation 500/333! If they do I, I'm not sure what my
reaction will be... I suspect it will be a mixture of seriously
ticked off,
and a bit happy. Though I can't remember how many DIMM's are in my
8500,
the 128MB I added might be a pair of 64Mb DIMM's. Even 1 128Mb
kit, or 1
256Mb kit would make the system usable (right now it has 1 64Mb kit
and 1
32Mb kit). The only thing is, as I have a PWS 433au, and a spare
XP1000/500, it wouldn't make any real sense to spend money to get
it up and
running.
I wonder how much RAM is in my Sparc 5....
BTW, I did some Googling. It looks like this might work, *IF* you
have
parity RAM in the donor Mac, but apparently that's pretty rare. It
looks
like a Sparc 5 might make a better donor. 
10:59 p.m.
BTW, I did some Googling. It looks like this might
work, *IF* you
have
parity RAM in the donor Mac, but apparently that's pretty rare. It
looks
like a Sparc 5 might make a better donor.
The SPARCstation 5 uses only one parity bit per 32-bit word, giving a
66 bit wide memory module. Some (primarily 8 MB) modules were 72 bits
wide anyway, but most were not.
Good luck getting them to work in an AlphaStation.
ok
bear
28 Mar
28 Mar
1:23 p.m.
On 27/3/07 18:22, "Doc Shipley" <doc at mdrconsult.com> wrote:
I have an AS500/500 on the bench and a handful of
5V FPM DIMMs from a
PM8500 in the drawer. I'll pop the top off the Alpha later and compare.
If they're compatible, that'd be *way* too easy.
OK, I have PROSIC in front of me and it says the memory is made up of 2
banks of (4x72) 8 byte DIMMS, I'm wondering if the reason people think it's
different is because you need 4 DIMMs to make up each bank? The part numbers
of MSP01-F* all resolve to AS500 memory, but the parts breakdown also
mentions 54-24340-BA which is a single 16mb module. Therefore if you can get
4 matching 128mb (4x72) 8 byte DIMMs you should be able to make up a single
MSP01-FE.
I don't have an AS500 to test, but I'll also fire up the OARS Archive CD and
if it's different I'll post its results.
Cheers
--
Adrian/Witchy
Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator
Www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?
2:35 p.m.
OK, I have PROSIC in front of me and it says the
memory is made up of 2
banks of (4x72) 8 byte DIMMS, I'm wondering if the reason people think it's
different is because you need 4 DIMMs to make up each bank? The part numbers
of MSP01-F* all resolve to AS500 memory, but the parts breakdown also
mentions 54-24340-BA which is a single 16mb module. Therefore if you can get
4 matching 128mb (4x72) 8 byte DIMMs you should be able to make up a single
MSP01-FE.
I don't have an AS500 to test, but I'll also fire up the OARS Archive CD and
if it's different I'll post its results.
I suspect that I've been wrong that the 266/333Mhz models use totally
different RAM than the 400/500Mhz models. However, I do know that the max
memory is different between the two. I believe you are limited to 64Mb
DIMMs in the 266/333Mhz models as they can only take 512Mb RAM, while the
400/500Mhz models can take 1Gb.
Zane
6479
days inactive
6482
days old
9 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
-
bear＠typewritten.org -
ddsnyder＠zoominternet.net -
doc＠mdrconsult.com -
healyzh＠aracnet.com -
jkunz＠unixag-kl.fh-kl.de -
mcguire＠neurotica.com -
witchy＠binarydinosaurs.co.uk