DRAM based Mac Portable Memory Card - Newer strikes again!

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Completely missed this one. MacUser June 1990 if memory serves:



@techknight If the board supports 8MB, does it stand to reason that they managed to hit the full 9MB point you managed to achieve on your card? Should have checked Newer's web site for info on this one, but no time ATM

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Searching Newer's site was a bust, no Mac Portable Memory Card to be found. They have so many nifty names for their products, but of course with this one they decided to go with a generic description! So search engines are a bust as well.

They had a $35 Mac Portable SCSI Adapter though, nice package. MicroMac Portable SCSI Adapter

 

[mg.man]

Modern equivalents...

- https://maceffects.com/products/8mb-memory-upgrade-for-macintosh-portable-m5120-m5126 (FYI, I got mine in a $99 offer - so might be worth speaking nicely to them)

- https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Macintosh-Portable-34-to-50-pin-SCSI-Hard-drive-Adapter-/312973273392 - also got a couple of these "on offer"...

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Yep, know about those. but his one is special.

Cards based on the DevNote specs, the very cool card @techknight hacked originally and this new one he and @maceffects have developed in your link all employ scarce PSRAM.

The thing about this particular expansion card from Newer is that it used low power DRAM as opposed to PseudoStaticRAM. Can't wait to see what @techknight has to say about it.

 

[trag]

Yep, know about those. but his one is special.

Cards based on the DevNote specs, the very cool card @techknight hacked originally and this new one he and @maceffects have developed in your link all employ scarce PSRAM.

The thing about this particular expansion card from Newer is that it used low power DRAM as opposed to PseudoStaticRAM. Can't wait to see what @techknight has to say about it.

Actually, Techknight's design uses SRAM, not PSRAM. SRAM uses less power than DRAM. There may be some overlap depending on specifics, but I don't think NewerTech's card used less power than TechKnight's.

I supplied the SRAM chips for TechKnight's original run of cards....

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Ah, gotta go back and look at his development thread again! The DRAM on that card looks like ZIP VRAM on VidCards from back when. Were both available in that package?

 

[aplmak]

Hey Trash not to spin off RAM topic but Techknight and I discussed a while back if it was at all possible to create an accelerator card let’s say using a 68020 chip in the PDS spot? Or would all the other components have to be modified. It’s my understanding that the PDS slot was originally created for this reason but I don’t know anyone who has ever seen one.. Techknight and I discussed it many years ago if it was possible.. Perhaps Maceffects would be interested?? Again sorry to go off topic.. I should have just created a new thread. I just have a bunch of 020 processor chips and the co processors to go with them..

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

No worries. There's a couple of threads around about the MicroMac Performer, check it out in the link above. It's a baseline 16MHz 030 running in the SE PDS or on the KillyKlip in my Drexel_128K with the Mac Plus upgrade. I think it should work just fine in Portable's PDS or the on a replacement PowerBook_100 CPU Card, but at 32MHz!

Dug up the thread about the PB100 recently, you posted in that one a while back.

PowerBook 100 Accelerator Insanity

Yet another crazy hack that's waaaay over my head . . . probably! It's looking a bit different with current ProtoBoard technology. Back in 2013 I got it stuck in my head that my 16MHz 68030 MicroMac Performer might be shoehorned into the Macintosh Portable: MacintoshPortable Slot Hackage...

68kmla.org

I'll be digging up the Performa/Portable project soon, the two go hand in hand.

Just realized I was searching the wrong site for info on the Newer DRAM card.

edit: here's the Portable related thread, it's about straight up cloning the Performer at first:

MicroMac Performer Redux: Cloning a 68030 Accelerator for Compact Macs

This one is mine, it came as wonderful surprise in my Drexel 128K that had been upgraded to Plus and then to "4MB SE/30" status over the course its remarkably extended useful lifetime. Not one of the original, silk screened student versions we've come to appreciate, but a killer machine from the...

68kmla.org

OK, back to waiting for @techknight to comment on the DRAM Card.