Subject: experience: upgrading RAM on an AlphaPC164
To: None <port-alpha@netbsd.org>
From: Joerg Czeranski <jc@joerch.org>
List: port-alpha
Date: 05/03/1999 22:13:15
Hi,
on Friday the 64MB RAM I purchased (4x 4Mx36) finally arrived.

I put them into the four free SIMM slots on my AlphaPC164,
then turned the box on, but it only beeped six times, repeatedly,
no output on the serial console.
I tried to look that code up in the documentation, but it doesn't
seem to be mentioned anywhere.

I switched the box off, shut down my AXPpci33 to test the SIMMs in it,
started pulling the new SIMMs out of the slots and then remembered
the 128/256bit bus jumper.

I pulled the jumper, reinstalled the SIMMs, turned it on, and everything
worked fine.  So if you upgrade your RAM, DON'T FORGET THE JUMPER! :-)

All eight modules have 12 chips each - strange number for 36 bit, but
who cares - and are 60ns.  The old SIMMs have Siemens chips, the new
SIMMs are from a different vendor (don't remember which).

Compiling O'Caml in a memory filesystem under NetBSD-1.3.3 ran 13% faster,
maybe due to the improved memory bandwidth.

joerch