AT RAMBANK 1990

1990 · operating-system · driver · Windows · Linux · Diamond Flower Electric Instrument

NOTE: Despite the label, this software is newer than version 4.01 ( AT-RAMBANK-1988 ). (See UPGRADE.TXT for differences.) It appears DFI reused old disks when they sent out driver updates to customers. DISK LABEL: DFI MEMO-2000A EMS 4.0 Upgrade Disk Copyright 1988 DFI, Inc. All Rights Reserved Copyright Diamond Flower Electri Instrument Co., Ltd. [Date on label appears incorrect as INSTALL.EXE is from 1990.] CONTENTS This disk contains drivers for the DFI AT-RAMBANK (rev. 7) which is a 16-bit ISA memory expansion card made for IBM PC/AT (286) computers. It has 72 sockets for "41256" DRAM chips for a max of 2 MB of RAM. The card was also referred to as the "MEMO-2000A". This 1990 version of the AT-RAMBANK Software Diskette came on a standard 360K (double-sided, double-density) 5-1/4" floppy disk, unlike the 1988 version which was single-sided. Some high-density (1.2MB) drives do not handle double-density disks correctly until the floppy drive parameters are set. For example, on Linux systems one can run fdsetprm /dev/fd0 360/360 . The manual for this card has been scanned and is available online, but see below for a summary. TL;DR: Run INSTALL.EXE before inserting card to see DIP switch settings. STANDARD FEATURES Uses 256K DRAM chips, "41256" (120ns or 150ns recommended, +5V). Up to 2048K bytes in 512K increments. Multiple cards can be installed (four AT-RAMBANKs gives 8M bytes). Fully socketed memory with parity check. DIP Switch to split the board's memory as Conventional , Extended , or Expanded memory. Conventional Memory Conventional memory refers to the memory that DOS recognizes. In the PC/AT system, this is memory between 0 and 640K bytes. Because application programs let DOS manage their memory, they can use only conventional memory. Extended Memory (XMS) Extended memory is the name that IBM uses for the 15M byte address space outside of the memory DOS can access. This address space is almost of no use to those who use DOS because DOS does not recognize memory abuve 640K bytes. However, if you use the XENIX operating system or IBM's VDISK, you can take advantage of the Extended memory. [MINIX works, too. --Ed.] Expanded Memory (EMS) Expanded memory is accepted by a paging technique compatible to the Lotus/Intel/Microsoft (LIM) Expanded Memory Specification. Although this memory is beyond DOS's 640K byte limit, application programs such as Symphony release 1.1, Lotus 1-2-3 version 2.0, and Framework II that adhere to the LIM EMS can use it for larger spreadsheets and data bases. FILE DESCRIPTIONS INSTALL.EXE facilitates the setting of the DIP switches. It also shows the parameter specifications which should be added to the CONFIG.SYS file. This program should be run before plugging the AT-RAMBANK into your computer. When asked for the Board Model, select "MEMO2000A". EMS32.SYS and EMS40.SYS are device drivers that meet the LIM specification requirements (version 3.2 or version 4.0) to support application programs using expanded memory. See CONFIG.SYS. EMSDISK.SYS is an electronic disk emulation device using expanded memory. This must come after EMS##.SYS in CONFIG.SYS. EXMDISK.SYS is like EMSDISK.SYS, but uses extended memory. [Not documented in the manual nor available in the older 1988 version of the drivers. This file is included in this archive of the upgraded (1990) disk.] CMMDISK.SYS uses conventional memory (under 640K) as an electronic disk to speed up data retrieval without disk I/O. CONFIG.SYS is the file which specifies which device drivers DOS loads when booting. We include a working sample for the AT-RAMBANK. PSPOOL/PSPOOLA are print spooler software for conventional or expanded memory. Use PSPLHELP.COM for the operation menu. BANKTEST is a program provided to test defective RAM chips on AT-RAMBANK. CONFIGURATION REQUIRED I/O port address switch. (For expanded memory only). Memory starting address switch. (Conventional or extended only). SW1: Amount of memory installed on the AT-RAMBANK. Memory parity check switch. Run system diagnostics-setup program to update the base memory size and extended memory size. Run BANKTEST to test for defective RAM chips. I/O PORT ADDRESS Only needs to be set if using board for Expanded memory. Uses switches S4, S3, S2, and S1 on DIP Switch Bank 1 (SW1). Default ports checked by EMS##.SYS: Default S1 S2 S3 S4 I/O Port Address 1. OFF ON OFF ON 258H & 259H 2. on off off on 268h & 269h 3. ON ON ON ON 208H & 209H 4. off on on on 218h & 219h Other ports may be selected manually using EMS##.SYS. To calculate the switch setting for an arbitrary address of the form 2X8H and 2X9H, where X is a hexadecimal digit, take S4,S3,S2,S1 as the binary number representing X where - and this is very important - 0 is "ON" and 1 is "OFF". MEMORY STARTING ADDRESS Only needed for conventional or extended memory (not expanded). Set S8 on DIP Switch Bank 1 (SW1) to OFF for Conventional memory and to ON for Extended memory. DIP Switch Bank 2 (SW2) sets XY where the extended memory s