I've got a 5170 that has 640K of RAM without the rampage board.
From that, we know that there must be card fitted that is providing the RAM between addresses 512K and 640K. (Because 5170 motherboard RAM only goes as high as 512K)
The rampage board has 8 1M simms for a total of 8M.
So, "
ramage" is a RampagePlus 286. Correct? The information may be relevant later.
From what I remember, there is an old version of the card, and an updated version. A photo of the old version is at [
here].
I configured all of it for extended memory, but what puzzles me is the linear starting address.
At first, I saw "
linear (extended)" in the RampagePlus 286's user manual (manual dated Jun 1988, for old version of card), leading me to believe that AST were using 'linear' as a synonym for 'extended'. But also in the manual is, "...
set the linear memory starting address at 256 KB ...", which means that 'linear' is not a synonym for what we know as 'extended'.
Also in the manual is, "
Extended memory includes conventional (backfilled) memory and memory above 1 MB." There, AST's use of 'extended' does not match with others definition of 'extended'.
If I set the linear starting address at 640K, then the boot time memory count will count all the RAM (640K+8192K), but if I set the linear starting address at 1024K, then the memory is not seen by the computer.
Doesn't most extended memory start at 1024K? That is really what I expected it to work at.
Yes, the starting address of what we know as 'extended memory' needs to be 1024K.
We know from above that 'linear' is not the same as our definition of 'extended'.
On page 3-9 of the manual, for 'Linear Memory Starting Address' is, "
Asks for the address at which RampagePlus 286 linear memory is to begin."
Also in the manual is, "...
set the linear memory starting address at 640 KB ...", informing us that 640 is a valid setting !!!!
I get the impression that the 'manual mode' of configuration is only partially manual. Maybe, since you have 640K of base/conventional memory, you are meant to indicate that linear memory is to start at 640K, and the 'smarts' of the configuration program, knowing that it is not to fill 640K-1024K, starts the card's memory at 1024K.
