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MacMemory MaxSave

olePigeon

Well-known member
@maceffects Will do. It's funny, though, because I'm wondering if it's functionally identical to BMOW's Plus ROMinator, but I won't know until I get it. Could just be a bit of RAM used as a RAM drive as it says ... but how it can hold onto that info without a battery is interesting. Maybe it can use the computer's battery somehow?
 

maceffects

Well-known member
I can honestly say that I’ve never seen one of these. I’m curious what kind of implementation it might be. Engineers were really crafty back then due to their limited resources, so some kind of hybrid solution would make sense.
 

beachycove

Well-known member
RAM disk technology seems to have been improved dramatically with the introduction of the 68020/30, not only because of the larger RAM complements of those systems, but also because of new memory management technologies in the new processor.

It interests me that this device for the Plus does not make any song or dance about how much of a RAM disk is provided -- the box says nothing about it, so far as I can see from the listing, which from a marketing standpoint is possibly revealing. Does it piggy-back on the and use the main system RAM, I wonder? In which case, it could effectively be a sort of PMMU add-on.
 

Bolle

Well-known member
From the description on the packaging I'd say it is just a RAM disk software combined with a patched ROM to enable the RAM disk on power up, read in the files you want to be on the disk and then boot into it right away.

I am pretty sure that no files will be stored on the ROMs on the MaxSave on the fly. The hardware is just patching the ROMs, the rest is done in software.
 

Crutch

Well-known member
I think the question about EPROMs etc. was asked because of this claim on the back: “If you crash it isn’t fatal. Recover your RAM disk intact by pushing the reset button.”

But I agree with Bolle. My reading (and based on the look of the thing) is that it is just saying that if you don’t actually ever turn off the power (i.e. if you crash you press the Reset button on the programmer’s switch instead of switching the matching off and on) the RAM disk contents will be preserved.

So, the thing ensures it doesn’t write junk to the RAM disk at boot time, is all. I don’t think it is getting access to the battery or any other source of power itself. You just need to not turn it off.
 

Iesca

Well-known member
Very interesting! Reminds me of the "Excalibur" from Assimilation Process, which is an expandable, external RAM disk with battery backup which I would love to play around with (and it plugs into the floppy port!). I only ever found a single picture of it though from a magazine (it looks very much like a MacBottom):
 

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Crutch

Well-known member
I didn’t know about the Excalibur, cool. There was a small closet industry of these things for a brief time circa 1986 when RAM became slightly cheaper and hard disks weren’t yet ubiquitous. Two similar products were the MacVenture QuickDrive and Western Automation Dasch. I have yet to see any of these in person, though, and I’ve been on the lookout for years.

 

Iesca

Well-known member
Ah, wasn't aware it was such a cottage industry! Interestingly, in DogCow's article, they mention Mac•Memory•Disk, which is a software RAM disk also from Assimilation. They must have thought this was fertile ground to have developed an external RAM disk as well.
 

cheesestraws

Well-known member
Assimilation do seem interesting—they seem to have built pretty much everything they could think of (?). I have a trackball of theirs, for example...
 

Iesca

Well-known member
I would like to do a little write-up on Assimilation, as they have an interesting history for their short time in the market, and they had some interesting products as well. They created what appears to be the first "Turbo" trackball (as the "Mac•Turbo•Touch") which appears to have then been bought by Kensington when Assimilation folded, being re-released as the more familiar "Turbo Mouse".
 

cheesestraws

Well-known member
They created what appears to be the first "Turbo" trackball (as the "Mac•Turbo•Touch") which appears to have then been bought by Kensington when Assimilation folded, being re-released as the more familiar "Turbo Mouse".

This sounds like it might explain what looked like design similarities between my earlier Assimilation (non-turbo) trackball and the Kensington one I have that plugs into the same interface? (I mean, aside from the obvious similarities of 'both being trackballs') I'd like to read your writeup.

Sorry for thread hijack, @olePigeon :)
 

olePigeon

Well-known member
I don't mind. :)

So I received it today and skimmed through the manual, and it appears to be exactly as Bolle predicted. You can configure a RAM disk that will keep its data through a reboot, but it doesn't save after a shut down. Considering it'll run on a 128K (recommends 512K RAM) or a 512K, it's nifty to see RAM disk software that'll work on such early machines.

If someone in the Bay Area wants to dump the ROMs, I'd be happy to lend it. But I think this dohicky is pretty much deprecated by the ROMinator. Still a fun piece of vintage kit.
 
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