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Bad RAM happens (as a sr. engineering manager of data storage devices, I know). The echoplex is very tolerant. I have 2 EDP, both with mixed, previously owned, RAM. Both work fine. bret ---Kim Flint <kflint@annihilist.com> wrote: > > At 1:44 PM -0700 6/20/98, Douglas Lawrence wrote: > >Mattias- > > > >I think the fact that our problem is the same is not just coincidental. It > >seems Oberheim (and others) say that *any* 30-pin memory is good to use in > >the 'Plex (parity or non-parity). Somehow I doubt that, but that's just from > >my experience in the computer industry where memory is very hardware > >specific. > > I don't think its very fair to imply some sort deceptive tactics on the > part of Oberheim or any other manufacturer making such a claim. Until this > email thread and another mail I got this week, I've never heard of anyone > having such a problem with a particular type of simm on the echoplex, and > it's been out for 3 1/2 years. (5 years if you count the Paradis LoopDelay, > which had a similar memory controller design.) I'm pretty sure I would > have heard about it if there had been a problem! In the past, all the > different simm types have worked just fine, so there is no reason why > Oberheim wouldn't tell their customers that. If you've come across a vendor > selling a type of memory that doesn't work, you would serve the world > better by contacting Oberheim and letting them know about it. Then they > will be able to inform their other customers, as I'm sure they would be > more than happy to do. > > My experience as an EE designing products for the computer industry and the > music industry is that the ordinary DRAM typically used on 30 pin simms and > the simms themselves only come in just a few basic varieties, and that it > is pretty easy to design a memory controller that handles them all. That's > what the echoplex and other memory oriented music products do, which is why > manufacturers say they handle all types of simms. The echoplex memory > controller was designed to handle parity/non-parity simms, any speed faster > than 120ns, and all the different possible DRAM chip configurations. When > we designed the echoplex, we tested all the varieties available and > everything worked fine. And as I noted, no problems have been reported to > Oberheim since, at least that I know of. It's possible you guys have come > across something new, which Oberheim should be informed about. > > In the days when 30-pin simms were common on computers, some computer > manufacturers elected not to use universal memory controllers for their own > mysterious marketing / cost / bad-engineering reasons. That tended to > confuse people buying for music industry products, where manufacturers > tried to do their customers a favor by going to the extra effort to do it > right. Unfortunately, various memory vendors and music stores have been > known to take advantage of this musician confusion and sell "special" > memory for a higher price, which is almost always BS. > > With newer computers the situation does get more complicated, since newer > DIMM memory comes a wide range of flavors and you really do need to make > sure you are getting the right kind, because the technology is quite > different. But that generally wasn't the case in the 30-pin simm days. And > it's generally not the case for products still using 30-pin simms now. But > it does add to the confusion, unfortunately. > > It seems to me more likely that somebody is either dumping defective memory > on the market or somebody is suddenly making 30 pin simms with a different > type of DRAM on them to clear inventory. (either of which would not be at > all suprising given the current economic crisis in South Korea, where > Samsung is located. A lot of ugly stuff has been happening in the past few > months, because companies in SE asia are doing anything to get dollars into > their bank accounts as quickly as possible.) It might be wise to buy memory > from reputable dealers to avoid these problems, at least for now. > > kim > > ______________________________________________________________________ > Kim Flint | Looper's Delight > kflint@annihilist.com | http://www.annihilist.com/loop/loop.html > http://www.annihilist.com/ | Loopers-Delight-request@annihilist.com > > > _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com