Hi.

OK. Here's the deal. I have a design for a memory upgrade board for Mk2/2A boards which (although I haven't yet built a prototype) I'm pretty sure will work quite nicely. After much thought, I was unable to come up with a good way of getting it above 64MB, but that should be sufficient for most people. I had hoped for 128MB, but it turns out to be pretty much undoable.

It would be possible to add other things as well, but after talking it over with Hugo we decided there wasn't all that much point. I had considered both 100mbit ethernet and USB host, but dumped them for various reasons:

1) the data rate from the USB host controllers suitable for use in this application are dreadful, according to Hugo, and the controllers consume enormous amount of idle bus cycles, thereby slowing things down.

2) for a number of reasons that have been thoroughly explored in past discussions, 100Mbit ethernet in this application wouldn't really achieve much that 10Mbit doesn't, and complicates things quite a lot.

3) There are supply problems with some of the parts for both USB and ethernet

4) It may well not fit anyway.

So, the current plan is for a PCB which will fit to the underside of the main board, attaching to the test points. It will have 8 64Mbit DRAM chips giving a total of 64MB of ram, and will require one patch wire. On a MK2A you could omit the wire and still get 48MB. On a MK2 you will have to remove the chips currently fitted to get the full amount.

It is a completely surface mount device, and would as such not really be suitable for selling as a kit. I will therefore have to get the things made in batches as completed sub-assemblies, which will then need to be fitted by one or other of the prople floating around who are good at such things.

I am provisionally aiming at a price of about £90-100, and the advantage of doing it this way should be shorter lead times and less supply problems than the tuner kits have. So far, I have contacted a company who can do the assembly, have routed the PCB, and I'm waiting for a quote on quantities of the RAM and on manufacture of the boards.

Anyone interested?

Pca