[Coco] 1mb and 2mb memory upgrades

[Bill Pierce]

Joe, the 1 meg used the same 16 ram chips as the original 512k upgrade (actually, in addition to), not to mention the support chips and DAT board. The Coco power supply was already marginal with the 1st 512k upgrade so adding another 512k taxed the supply, so Tony Distefano added a power supply to help with the load.
When the 2 meg was developed (about 2-3 years later), technology had advanced (and chip prices went down) so that (according to Gene who has one) lower power chips (and less) were used which allow the upgrade to use the Coco's supply.
With today's technology, I'm sure it could be done from the Coco's supply as it even 2 meg (or greater) would probably use less than the original 512k. An example being Cloud9's new "Triad" 512k upgrade which uses much less power and runs much cooler (the old 1 & 2 megs definately need a fan).
 

Bill Pierce
"Today is a good day... I woke up" - Ritchie Havens
 

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-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Grubbs <jsgrubbs at hotmail.com>
To: coco <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Fri, Mar 13, 2015 9:14 am
Subject: [Coco] 1mb and 2mb memory upgrades


I meant to ask this the other idea when the topic came up. I believe someone
said that the 1mb and 2mb upgrades required the use of another/second power
supply. Is this due to the fact that the CoCo3's supply is too weenie to handle
it, or were different voltages needed for the memory that was being used?

If
the former, has anyone considered bolstering the power supply with a better
transistor, heat sink, and perhaps a stouter transformer. Or maybe a newer high
current switcher?


 		 	   		  

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