I  have been reading some preliminary product  advertisements  on 
CompuServe lately.  These adds were posted by the folks at E.& T. 
Software  in Garland Texas.  E. & T. is run by Ed Jenkins and  is 
well known for it's extensive support of the Coleco Adam Computer 
System.   After reading about the closing of Orphanware  and  CL- 
Digital,  E.& T. has decided to go into the hardware  development 
arena!  The Jan/Feb 1989 issue of ADAM'S ALIVE has this to say...

     "We  at  E  &  T  have  decided  to  do  a  little  hardware 
development  of  our  own.  We are working  on  several  hardware 
projects,  one  of  which is a large,  expandable  memory  board.  
Released  as a 256K board, it can be expanded to 512K or One  Meg 
by  simply  installing  additional  memory  modules.   Priced  at 
$185.00  for 256K, $285.00 for 512K and $485.00 for 1  MEG,  this 
board  will  be completely compatible (with)  all  existing  ADAM 
software  that uses a memory expander card.  Release date  should 
be sometime in April 1989."

Ed's  more recent messages on CompuServe indicate the boards  are 
now ready for shipment to all interested customers.  I feel  this 
new hardware development is worth telling people about.  I'm sure 
most  of us want to know how reliable the unit is, where does  it 
connect to the Adam, will the cost of memory modules fluctuate as 
did  the  predecessor  memory devices?  Also, what  is  E  &  T's 
warrenty on this new product?  Of what real benifit is this board 
over earlier designs?  Unfortunately, Ed was rather  unresponsive 
and elusive to such questions.

In  the interest of the Adam comunity, I went on a  little  field 
trip  to  explore the costs of the known components  and  compare 
this  cost  on a price per bit basis with other memory  and  data 
storage devices.  This is what I discovered.......

These are based on what little is known about the new E&T MEGARAM 
cards  and of course what is known about the old OBS 256K  cards.  
This  was not commisioned by anyone, but rather the  thoughts  of 
this author based on experience with the OBS 512K, the OBS  256K, 
and  the  AAUG  Hard  Drive interface.   (I  have  all  of  these 
products)  and can assume that the E&T boards will function  just 
like  the  OBS  boards since the function is  controlled  by  the 
Coleco bank switching. 

AAUG 256K board with 8-4464s 
    Board (w PIA2)                75.00
    Chips 8 X 8.00                64.00
    Total                        139.00

    CAPACITY                     262144  bytes

    Cost per Byte                .00053/byte

E&T 256K board with 1 256K X 8 SIMM

    Board (w something)          145.00 
    TOTAL                        145.00

    Cost per Byte                 .0006/byte

AAUG HARD DRIVE

    Interface                    145.00
    MINISCRIBE 20                159.00   Appx 21832000 bytes
    POWER SUPPLY                  50.00
    MISC                          15.00
    TOTAL                        369.00
 
    Cost per Byte               .000016/byte


This  makes the AAUG board cost about equal to the E&T board on a 
per  byte basis and the AAUG Hard Drive costs about 2%  per  byte 
what the E&T 256K board costs.  And consider that the hard  drive 
is   as  fast  as  either the AAUG or E&T  board.   This  bit  of 
mathematics  was enough to make me take a second thought  on  the 
usefullness  of  the new boards.  I like the fact that  they  are 
available....but let's face facts.  When I originally purchased a 
large memory expander, it was because I needed something to  hold 
a  great deal of data and process it in a satisfactory length  of 
time.  An electronic RAMDISK is just the ticket for such a  need.  
There  is  no  disk  to  spin  and  the  proecessing  is   nearly 
instantaneous!   The 720K disk drives provided  superior  storage 
space,  but  the speed was no where near what the  RAMDISK  could 
provide.   Now  that I have a 20 MEG hard drive connected  to  my 
ADAM,  I  have an unbelievable amount of storage capcity  and  it 
will  process data as fast as the RAMDISK!  Best of all,  when  I 
turn off my computer....the data doesn't just go "POOOOF!"  I  no 
longer need more than a 64K memory expander and one disk drive to 
make any computing possible.   

One more thing to consider with a SIMM (or SIP)..if it goes  bad, 
the  whole thing is bad.  With individual chips, you can  replace 
just  the one that is malfunctioning.  That could save you 55  to 
60  bucks  if it ever breaks.  Food for thought  in  these  times 
where  every  cent counts!  I for one work much to  hard  for  my 
money  to simply blow it on a new gadget that I'll  never  really 
need!   If  not  for the hard drive, this would be  a  must  have 
device but, as you all know....it's out a bit too late.  

These  are facts, not subjective babble.  Make your  decision  on 
what you really need.  If you want memory that is fast as RAMDISK 
and  is  non volatile (maintains data during power  down),  works 
with  EOS,  TDOS (CP/M replacement), and soon,  GO-DOS,  costs  a 
fraction  of what dynamic ram does, and has an immense amount  of 
storage,  then the AAUG HD is the only way to go.  On  the  other 
hand, you could spend all your time transfering files to the  256 
or  512 OBS or E&T board everytime you wanted to use it.  If  you 
really  think about it, even the 720 conversions from E&T  are  a 
better deal now than a memory board from either one.  Anyone  one 
want to buy my memory expanders.  I already have the Hard Drive.

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