A2000 only 8MB ram ?

I've read somewhere that the A2000 only can handle 8MB ram.

I guess thats in native mode with no accelerator cards, right ?

Will the following setup work ?

GVP Combo 030 with 8MB, + Zorro II 8MB

which is faster, Zorro II ram or ram on the GVP card ?

The zorro II bus can only take up to 8mb of RAM, yes.

The GVP Combo cards have a jumper to assign the 32bit memory in the zorro II space, or extended space. You chose. The GVP RAM cant be in the zorro II space if you already have 8mb RAM card in the zorro space, of course.

Zorro II ram is 24bit, and the RAM on the GVP card is 32bit, so the GVP RAM is faster when accessed by the GVP onboard CPU.

As Matt says, a vanilla 24-bit A2000 can address up to 8MB FastRAM, if you want more, you'll need a 32-bit accelerator. If you've got 8MB in the Z2 space, you'll want the '030 to put all its RAM into the 32-bit space.

As for speed, the 32-bit RAM on the accelerator will be much faster access for the CPU, but if you've got a Z2 DMA card (A2091 or similar) it's still worth having a couple of megs of Z2 FastRAM, since Z2 cards can't DMA into the 32-bit space of an accelerator.

My A2000 is set up like this, I've got an A2091 with 2MB of FastRAM on it for DMA transfers, and 16MB more on the CPU card for efficient use of the '030.

hmm ok, thanks :-)

I'm still a noob with all the Zorro slot thingies.. since only until last week have I ever owned a A500 + A1200.

I'm pondering if I should add 2x4Meg modules to my GVP, or just add a 8Meg Zorro card.

If I buy at softhut there's a USD $10 difference where the GVP mem is the more expensive, but I guess it's worth it.

How are you connecting a hard disk to the machine? If it's a Z2 DMA card, it's probably worth trying to get a couple of megs in the 24-bit address space.

Otherwise, RAM on the accelerator card is going to be faster. Is there any RAM on the CPU card at all? If there's none, you'll not get anywhere near the optimal performance.

If you modify the original PSU using a smaller ATX unit (with its own case), then you can hack your own GVP SIMM. The hacked ones are a lot taller and clashes with the original PSU.

there is already 8 Megs (4mb soldered, and 1 4mb module) on the GVP card, and I'm using SCSI disks since it's a combo card. there's also a Malibu controller with a single disk attached to it.


I think I'm just going to buy the 2x4Meg modules.. too much trouble (for now) with hacking the 72pin sims :-)

Connect your SCSI hard drive(s) to the GVP combo SCSI port!

they already are ;-)

In which case, stuff the 24-bit Zorro II RAM entirely! If you're using a combo card, the CPU and the SCSI DMA will happen in 32-bit RAM. Stick as much RAM on the accelerator as you possibly can.