Amiga 4000 64MB Memoryhack, without motherboard-cuts

A while ago I found a hack how to add 64MB or RAM into the Amiga 4000 motherboard:

To get there just check http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?57613-64mb-fastram-to-your-A4000-mobo

ONE SIDENOTE: this hack will NOT work on Rev D Amiga 4000 (those with the 030 soldered onboard) or the A4000T

 

But this required cutting traces on the motherboard. so. how to do it WITHOUT cutting wires?  well some work but this is how I did it:

First of all you will need some files to program the GAL etc. and here is one place to download the files: 64MFiles

This DOES require alot of soldering. so the above link might be more EASY. but then you need to cut traces.

 

So first I had to remove the RAMSEY chip, I do that with my hot-air station.

64Mrem-ramsey

so when I have removed the ramsey, I clean up the pads:

64Mramsey-gone

(shiny picture.. :))  nice and clean. also removed the solder on the U860 spot.

Now solder one wire from U890 pin 45 to U860 pin 14, and one wire from U89 pin 46 to U860 pin 13.

64Mwires

 

Also solder a longer wire to U860 pin 17. (this will be a wire to the back of the board to the SIMM sockets. put it trough a VIA hole or so. (the big hole you see is for the CPU card spacer.. not recomended to use).  also one of the hacks reuires cutting pins of the U860. but to be sure. just insulte the pins with a piece of kapton tape:

64MGAL

 

Now they will not be connected, no cutting needed so solder in a socket in U860 now (the wires shold be connected so take care), and now well as this hack requires cutting traces to the ramsey.  Actually to pin 45 and 46 that was used above.  so instead of cutting, insulate them with more Kaptontape:

64Minsulate

 

Now they will not be connected to the RAMSEY chip.   Well now it is time for the pull-up resistors needed to “fool” the ramsey chip:  I decided to put them UNDER the ramseychip as I will put it in a socket.

so I just take a normal socket:
64Msocket

 

and remove the bottom-plastic plate. and locate pin 45 and 46, solder a small wire to it and solder a 4.7KOhm restistor to them:

64Msocket2

 

I insulate them with a shrinktube.

Solder it to the socket: (remember to skip pin 45 and 46 as you insulated them with kaptontape)

 

64Minplace

 

and solder the 2 loose wires to pin 47.  let the resistors be even in the MIDDLE of the socket. so you can push down the Ramsey later.

Now. time to fix the wire to the SIMM socket. (you know the one you soldered to pin 17 of U860)

flip the board around. and you should have the wire through one of the via holes:

at the end of this wire solder a 33Ohm resistor:

64M330ohm

and Insulate with shrinktube:

64Mshrink

 

Now solder it to the first FASTMEM SIMM Socket pin 19, also solder wires connecting all fastmem sockets pin 19 to eachother:

64Msimmcloseup 64Msimmsockets

 

and secure them. I always use Kaptontape:

64Mdone

 

Now you need to program a GAL 16V8 with one of the codes in the file above. this will work with V3 of the hack. V6 should work aswell, not sure.

Put in the GAL and ramsey in each socket:

64Mdone2

 

Put in 4 16MB simms instead of 4MB simms (this is more or less the ONLY legal configuration now.  2 32MB simms should work in every other socket)

Boot up and:

 

64MResult

 

64MB of fastmem on the Amiga 4000 motherboard.

 

 

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5 thoughts on “Amiga 4000 64MB Memoryhack, without motherboard-cuts

  1. Well will build a solution someday, simply by using the slutin from the A4000 motherboard

  2. Chucky, do you happen to know if I can just isolate pins 45 through 47 of Ramsey in preparation of this kind of hack? Will the A4000 boot nonetheless? Do I need to pull down the isolated pins on Ramsey if I don’t put any FastRAM in the machine?
    Background: I’ll start populating my A4000 board soon but want to test it step by step while building. FastRAM would be one of the last things to test, but I also don’t want to desolder Ramsey again once it’s in place…

  3. Love your work 🙂 Any chance you will make a 3660 version with RAM?

    Cheers,
    Tekk

    1. in short: no
      the 3660 is a very bad design. to add memory would be hard. better to do a completly new thing instead. I am however no real HW designer so..

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