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Article View: net.micro.atari
Article #1219

Re: 256K 800xl conversion

#1219
From: Vicious Oyster
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 1985 14:10
47 lines
3070 bytes
In article <427@imsvax.UUCP> bob@imsvax.UUCP (Bob Burch) writes:
>
>    Myself and others are interested in performing the modifications
>    specified in "The Quarter-Meg Atari 800XL" article as featured in
>    BYTE 9/85.	We currently have the necessary parts on order and have
>    acquired the BYTEnet code.
 ...
>    Among our questions are:
>      1)  Does this mod actually work?
>      2)  Will DOS 2.5 perform the proper bank switching?
>      3)  Is there any applicable Public Domain software
>	  available?
>      4)  and lastly, HELP!!!

   The local Atari user's group Hardware SIG has two working 256K 800XLs.
I saw them demo'd at both the SIG and general meetings.  They work;
however, I think they found that the Byte article wasn't 100% accurate,
but since they have the hardware knowledge, have done there own modifications,
and also have modified DOS 2.5 to work properly.  The good news is that
we (the User's Group) have made both the circuit diagrams and the DOS
patches Public Domain.  I'm not sure how you, as a member of the public,
would go about getting this information, but since I'm here on the net
and a member of the AUG, I'll take names of interested people and see what
I can do.  (If you ARE a member of some Atari user's group, it might be easier
to ask your chairman or secretary or whatever to get ahold of my chairman or
secretary or whatever, and request the info.  Here's the address:

          Madison Area Atari Users Group (MAAUG)
          Post Office Box 56191
          Madison, WI 53705

Further news: they haven't yet made a 256K 1200XL, but they've opened one
up and said it can be done, but you also have to buy, um, it was either an
Antic or GTIA chip (I forgot which one; probably the former).  Also, they
believe it's possible to cram an *extra* 256K into these machines.  Yup!
That's 512K!  And as the icing on the cake, our chairman, when last seen,
was mumbling something about "Directly accessing memory... forget about
ramdisks... piece o' cake..."

 - joel "vo" plutchak
   {allegra,ihnp4,seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!oyster

Can you say "opinion"?  I *knew* you could!

Disclaimer:  the Academic Computing Center, the State of Wisconsin, and the
Madison Area Atari Users Group cannot be held responsible for anything I,
an employee and/or member of said organizations, say, post, or do.
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References: <427@imsvax.UUCP>

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From: oyster@uwmacc.UUCP (Vicious Oyster)
Newsgroups: net.micro.atari
Subject: Re: 256K 800xl conversion
Message-ID: <1545@uwmacc.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 11-Oct-85 10:10:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: uwmacc.1545
Posted: Fri Oct 11 10:10:10 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 14-Oct-85 04:09:25 EDT
References: <427@imsvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: oyster@maccunix.UUCP (betty thompson)
Organization: UWisconsin-Madison Academic Comp Center
Lines: 47