• Junk box DRAM modules

    02/10/2022 at 19:08 • 0 comments

    I have a large stock (132 pieces) of 72-pin SIMM packaged DRAM modules. Some PC service engineer probably kept them thinking they would be useful, then technology moved on and PCs no longer used them. 

    However, they are likely to be 5V and potentially useful to retro computer builders who want more RAM than a few SRAM chips can provide. They certainly save a lot of wiring. 

    Let me know if you have any idea what they might be used for. 

    The 32-bit wide data bus might be useful for video frame buffers. An MC6845 CRTC could fetch four bytes at a time instead of one, thereby quadrupling the horizontal pixel resolution. 

    I don't have the time to sort them out by memory size, I have one labelled 8 MB (2M x 32-bit) and the rest are unlabelled, but if you need a particular size I could have a look for one.

    I also have sixty-six 30-pin SIMMS, such as 1M x 9 or 4M x 9 bits. These are only byte-wide data but the connections are on 0.1" pitch and thus easier for connecting to prototyping board.