JIM HOLSONBACK wrote in a message to ROY J. TELLASON:

 RJT> Oh?  I haven't looked at it in detail yet.  I suppose it'll make a good
 RJT> home for one of those chips I took along,  which as I recall were
 RJT> slower parts (though I can't make much sense out of the numbers on
 RJT> them,  gotta look it up in the book).

 JH> For P1, easy to decipher, but look in the book about voltages and
 JH> etc., based on the "SY" number on bottom of chip.

Looking at the one in front of me on the desk (good thing I use a keyboard
drawer...  :-),  I see an SX number on one of them,  and an SU number on
the other.

 RJT> Speaking of parts I took along,  that cache stick is an interesting
 RJT> critter. There's a jumper on there that's even labeled,  says
"Pentium"
 RJT> and "Cyrix". There's also a warning sticker on the back
that says "For
 RJT> G586PM series only" and "You must take full responsibility for any
 RJT> damages that may occur if otherwise used".  Interesting stuff...

 JH> I've seen that type of warning before.  Pfscarey.  Maybe G586PM is
 JH> a Gigabyte part - - I dunno. You might try a Google search when you
 JH> next stop by the library.

 RJT> There's also a "256" written in to a portion of the part
number on the
 RJT> front side.  Looks like it'll drop right in to the cache socket that's
 RJT> on the board on my desk,  which is not quite as tall a part labeled
 RJT> "Corsair Microsystems CM2258FX-6" but not otherwise identified.

 JH> FWIW, I have a Corsair COAST module here also, but clearly not the
 JH> same as yours.

 RJT> book doesn't go into this stuff much,  talks about "referring to the
 RJT> documentation that came with your MB" and "getting the
databooks"
 RJT> (hah!) and similar stuff.

 JH> AFAIK, even with the manual, from mfgrs up to Asus level,  the info
 JH> about these COAST modules is very scant. Voodoo, no longer
 JH> available, and etc.

I'll probably do okay if I go to one of the computer shows that come around
every so often and talking to one of the memory specialists.  Those guys
have yet to steer me wrong.

 JH> So, should I forget about sending you VX board(s)?

They wouldn't go to waste,  though I haven't done with the one that's
sitting here on the desk,  and the one in the box,  yet.

Am still trying to get a number of automotive hassles out of the way before
the bad weather kicks in (it's raining today,  and when I left work my
wipers didn't work until I turned a corner -- that's a new one!).  Plus by
the time a weekend gets here I don't seem to have anywhere near as much
energy as I'd like,  not like it used to be...

 RJT> Not.  I'm just a little disappointed that there's that limit there in
 RJT> terms of where I can go with them.  I can think of maybe a couple of
 RJT> instances of stuff where I'd like to go much further than that with
 RJT> ram,  and maybe even go with ECC or at least parity ram, 

 JH> You're disappointed that 5-7 year old VX mainboards which now come
 JH> to you as freebies limit you as to where you want to go now at the
 JH> end of 2002? 

No,  I'm disappointed in that I'm bumping into a limit that I didn't know
was there,  before.

 JH> C'mon, Roy.  If they still had value even up to around $15 a board 
 JH> they wouldn't be freebies, even from a generous feller such as 
 JH> myself, would they?

 JH> Intel's only chipset of that vintage which supports parity SIMMS is
 JH> the 430HX. That one _can_ cache up to 512MB of parity SIMMS, but my
 JH> book cautions - - "Most 430HX boards shipped with a tag chip that
 JH> could only manage 64MB of cached main memory, while you could 
 JH> optionally upgrade it to a larger capacity tag chip that would
 JH> allow for caching the full 512MB of RAM.'

 RJT> Key words there being "of that vintage".  :-)

 JH> Hee.  I think they may have stopped production of HX chipset boards
 JH> back around 1997.  Recent in yours and my years,  older in doggie
 JH> years, even older in 'puter stuff' years.  Now 'Vintage.'

"puter stuff years" -- yeah,  I like that one.  It sure fits what
I'm seeing lately...

 RJT> I wonder what that tag chip is that they're referring to?  From 
 RJT> the earlier stuff (386, etc.) I seem to remember cache being a 
 RJT> bunch of DIP-socketed stuff,  and in fact some of the boards I 
 RJT> have on hand have those sockets *empty*. They were different 
 RJT> sizes of chip,  and I believe one of those was designated as a 
 RJT> "tag" ram.

 JH> Looking at 2 different boards with slots for COAST modules - - 
 JH> One, with 256KB onboard already,  no slot available for added Tag 
 JH> Ram. I guess it already has enough onboard to cover an added 256K 
 JH> COAST module. Second, and Asus P55t2P4 board, with 256K already 
 JH> onboard - -has a slot there for an added tagram chip to cache more 
 JH> than 64MB - - add that and an appropriate COAST module of 256K and 
 JH> off you go,  if you can find them.

 RJT> The cache stick that was with those Pentium chips has just two big
 RJT> chips on it,  UMC parts labeled 3232,  and two sets of pads on 
 RJT> the other side labeled 32K*32 which probably accounts for the 
 RJT> cache ram itself.

 JH> Sounds right, but no small tagram chip on the COAST stick?  Even if
 JH> there, from what I've read, that may not cover the 
 JH> mainboard/chipset requirements for caching more than 64MB.

Not on that one.  The one that's in the board sitting here has two bigger
chips and one smaller one,  probably set up differently,  which is why I'm
thinking that trying this other one in there might not work too well.

 RJT> one that's *in* the MB has two similar chips on it.  One has that paper
 RJT> sticker I mention above and the other is marked Galvantech
 RJT> gy17132C32Q-6 (both similar chips) _and_ a smaller one marked N321256J.
 RJT>  I'm thinking that in this case _that_ one is likely to be the tag ram
 RJT> and that the other cache stick wouldn't likely work in this board.

 JH> Sorry, I got no time to try and look up those chip numbers.

No biggie,  I'll figure out something to do with this stick that's laying
here.  I just wish that I'd have taken a closer look at the board it came
out of,  and that I knew then what to look for,  or at least to the degree
I know now...  

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