On Thu, 7 Jun 2001, Chris Gilbert wrote:
> > How much memory can I put in a CATS?  It is listed as using 2 PC66
> > DIMMs. Can I put 2 256MB PC100 DIMMs into it and have 512MB?
> > These 256MB DIMMs are reasonably priced, larger memories appear to
> > cost a lot more (today).
> 
> I've got 128MB in my CATS.  The problem with the CATS board is that's it's 
> fairly picky on the type of RAM (or so I'm led to believe)

PC66 is different from PC100. IIRC, the timing pins are different. The
outermost slot can take PC66 and PC100, the innermost only PC66. There is
also the issue of 2-bank vs 4-bank DIMMs. The outermost slot can take 2 or
4 bank, the innermost only 2. However, if you have 4 bank in the
outermost, the innermost must be left empty.

This description is all from memory. There is a PostScript document on
http://www.chaltech.com/documents.php but it seems to be corrupted or
otherwise unreadable (I've tried ghostscript and an HP laser printer).
 
> > Is there any high resolution graphics board available for it? 
> 
> The problem is how much the board expects to be in a PC.  IE the CATS bios 
> emulates enough of an x86 processor to get the graphics card going.  So it 
> comes down to trial and error in some respects.  There's also the issue of X 
> server support.

That's right. Mark was working on support for more diverse graphics cards,
I believe (partly due to it being tricky to get hold of S3 Virge
cards). Looking through the mailing list archives, he mentions patches
to produce a working XF86_Mach64. I've not tried these though.

-- 
Stephen