Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
Posts: 874 from 2007/4/9
From: Kingston upon ...
Quote:
Amigaharry2 wrote:
Btw:
EFIKA hardware-layout is designed for 512MB and it would be possible by upgrading frmware. (bplan has planed such versions of EFIKA.....). Unfortunately bplan never releases such a firmware-upgrade......
Actually according to the 5200b documentation, there are two CS channels available - the first is enabled by default (and populated on the EFika with two 64MB chips), the second is enabled by setting a register bit iirc (which is probably the 'firmware update') referred to.
It should be possible to upgrade the Efika to 256MB without any firmware modifications, however this would require two 128MB chips to be soldered in place of the existing two 64MB ones. The 5200b autoconfigs the memory on startup iirc, so shouldn't require any firmware mod to address the larger capacity chips.
The only 128MB chips I could find (Micron MT46V64M16-P6t) were around $95 per chip last I checked... obviously this would have impacted somewhat on the Efika's $199 original price point (later reduced to $99), which is no doubt why bplan chose 128MB only.
I haven't yet shelled out, and they might not even be available anymore, but I'm still considering buying them anyway just for the hackery and bragging rights on a 256MB Efika.
Adding two additional 64MB chips would no doubt be cheaper, but would require the firmware modification (and addition of accompanying SMD components on the underside of the PCB).
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