Monthly Archives: October 2018

AST SixPackPlus

So you have an #XT machine, but need more memory. Or are annoyed to enter the current time each time you boot your device.
How would you solve that with #SIMM modules not yet invented? Xt, some #AT and even some #386 machines still only featured #DIP memory sockets in a limited amount (yes, every few K had to be placed in by you by hand!). If they were full with your many 256 KByte, well, you may have a problem… or do you?

Say “Hello” to the AST #SixPackPlus!

It’s an #ISA bus card that featured up to 384 KByte additional #memory, as well as #serial port and #parallel port and a real time #clock!
The way early computers worked, most buses of that time were more or less a simple extension of the #CPU pins – hence you could integrate memory via a card quite easy.
So this one brings our previously shown #IBM 5155 board to a whopping 640 KByte – and no one needs more memory in a computer, right? 😉
I could finally start the #Norton Commander as well!

By the way, AST Research was one of the companies defining the extended memory standard (emm386 anyone?), #DPMI (which every modern DOS game used), the ill-faited EISA bus, and it’s where The 8 Bit Guy worked.
#slot #8088 #oldschool #computing #640kb #nerdstuff #slow #dos #msdos #80s #oldgames #retro #8bit