Re: [MiNT] Installing on a MegaSTE

[Paul Wratt <paul.wratt@gmail.com>]

On Wed, Jan 13, 2010 at 1:21 PM, Mark Duckworth
<mduckworth@atari-source.org> wrote:
> On 1/13/10 1:59 PM, Christos Tziotzis wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>> A friend and I tried to install MiNT on his 4MB MSTE without XFS. However
>> the memory usage was approximately 3MB of RAM living only 1 to the user. As
>> you can see this makes the system almost useless. So:
>> Is there a way to minimize the memory usage?
>> Also could this be an effect of left over code in MiNT? And if so, should
>> there be a clean up of the code?
>> The system was: MiNT, XaAES, Teradesk, and Ethernec driver.
>> Thanks.
>> Christos
>
> This is about right :(.  I too want to run mint on my MSTe so I hunted
> solutions and found one.  The Magnum STe.  This isn't for sale anymore and
> wasn't for sale for very long but it is a 14MB st ram board for ste's.  They
> also made an ST variant as well as a TT variant that allowed 256mb! of tt
> ram.  I searched for a couple weeks and got in touch with the author.  I
> found the schematics online and hunted down all the components to build a
> board.  The author graciously sent me the CPLD code as well as the gerber
> files to have a pcb made!  The author even gave me permission to sell the
> boards with profit!  If all goes well I'll have 2 MSTe's with 14MB of ram
> and the parts to build 6 more of them to send to people!  If it works, I
> will buy the rest of the components I need to make as many as possible but
> the CPLD is no longer available through normal channels.  I still have to go
> over the gerber files and submit it to batchpcb.  The CPLD's are very
> expensive so any boards produced are going to be well over $100USD in
> components and pcb cost alone but hey...  Also an associate of the developer
> has several Magnum ST and TT boards left and I asked him to send them to me
> which he is doing for the price of postage!  These guys definitely have no
> atari interest anymore.
>
> But between this and the MSTEIDEM there is a reason to built mint for ST.
>
> The sad thing is between Aranym, 2 TT's and my falcon, I have no idea WHY I
> want to make my mste usable with mint... I just DO.
>
> Thanks,
> Mark
>
I would say keep churning them out while you can, if the CPLD are a
limited resource, then it may be worth approaching some one of a
philathopic nature to aquire the lot.

As a last resort the same approach could be taken to get a custom run
of CPLD created, but that would imply a market in which it could break
even at least

Paul
some one of a philathopic nature - money to burn for the right cause