SIMMS and the 6510 (RE: VIC - DRAM-refresh)

ncoplin_at_orbeng.com
Date: 2001-05-16 09:19:37

>For Nick:
>The only solution I see for the moment is replacing the 4164's by 41256's
>which enables you to use at least 256 KB of RAM accessible to the VIC.
>Additionally you can add as much as other DRAM-modules as you want using
>CBR. I can dream up a scheme doing that if you (or anybody else) want to.

There are solutions for the Z80 "out there" to have 16MB, so I'm not happy
to leave it that our humble 6502/6510 machines cannot.

I was inspired by separate discussion with an Acorn user who had added DRAMs
to his SRAM machine.

The inspiration was to perform a CBR and a read in the processor phase of
the clock. With a 1MHz clock, 500ns is low and 500ns is high. There is a RAS
and CAS event in each phase, I assume for 200ns each? I have no
oscilliscope, but as some boards have 300ns RAMs, the signals should be
long.

The concept is to force a CAS-before-RAS refresh before the RAS signal is no
longer available from the VIC/PLA. The idea is to block the RAS event from
occuring normally, have a CAS-before-RAS refresh (actually just CAS, no
RAS), then allow the normal RAS through in time for a RAS-CAS read cycle to
be performed. As the resulting RAS event which is associated with the read
is smaller, the memory I assume needs to be faster acting. In order to
complete a CAS-before-RAS the memory needs to be faster. But 70ns SIMMS
should be relatively easy to obtain.

My guess is that the inserted CBR cycle needs to be over in 125ns so that
the normal RAS is still available for the read and can be switched in.

The TTL logic needs to be sorted out still, but does the idea sound
feasible? If it could be done, all would be transparent to the CPU and the
VIC.

Comments and thoughts appreciated, I've never worked with DRAMs.
- Nick


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