Internal Ram Upgrade

[jamesthrs]

Hi all,

I upgraded internal RAM of my xda and others (my friends) from 32MB to 64MB by myself and intend to do 128MB memory upgrade.
I'm not sure whether the xda internal hardware along with its installed OS can handle 128MB internal memory, but its worth to try.
The chips (SDRAM) for this purpose (128MB memory upgrade) is difficult or should I say impossible to get within my country.
I have contacted the memory manufacturer distributor, their minimum order is 1000 pcs, this is too many for experiment. XDA needs only two of this chips.
I guess, I have to keep on waiting.

Other option is to stack the memory and lift the top chips CS pin and wired to pin L14 (//RAS_2/SDCS_2) of strong arm processor. Offcourse I need to make a software driver to have the OS recognize this new memory mapping address and mounted as perhaps a folder in the root directory.

Writing a software driver is a new challenge for me who happen to be a new programmer.

The problem on the second option is to find the path on the PC board that connected to pin L14 of strong arm processor.

Can anybody point where this path on PC board located ?


Best Regards,
James

[cara]

Where did you get the chips to upgrade from 32 to 64, and how much were they?
Do you have the chip ID?
Any/All info here please.

[Supergrobie]

look at :

http://www.ipaqupgrade.de/

Sorry, it's an german side... but:

the 2 chips 4 64 MB without inbuild 75-Euro

If u want to upgrade to 128 MB- u must have the driver.
the only company that can handle this at this time is in America, and
they don't sell the driver... :twisted:

Stevie

[MADmanFREE]

With this extra memory, have you been able to increase the colour depth of the XDA?
I was looking into it for this reason. But as we can't use a microdrive etc with the XDA my want for watching full length quality moves on the XDA still goes on . . .

Martin

[Zviratko]

Which chips did you use? I plan upgrading as well (by myself), but I don't know if all SDRAM chips are compatible... I was thinking about buying an ordinary SDRAM memory for PC and using the chips (2x 128Mbit), but can't find any with Winbond chips in...

[jamesthrs]

All,

You may use 2x SDRAM chip with spec below:
- 256 Mbit with configuration 4M x 16bit x 4 banks
- LVTTL
- TSOP II-54 pin
- Freq 133Mhz (PC133) or 100Mhz (PC100)

The most important thing is the pin layout must macth with Intel Strong Arm SA1110 Development board schematic, you may download this schematic for free from Intel website. Samsung and micron has put this chips on mass production, I myself use samsung.

This upgrade won't do any effect on the colour depth of XDA. Colour depth is taken care by VGA and LCD circuit, not the memory.

Most memory distributor won't let you order this chips in small quantity. Each PocketPC needs only 2 of the chip. So the only way to get the chips is to seek SDRAM memory module utilize the chips for this upgrade.

I still have some of the chips incase of somebody need my help to upgrade their XDA.


Cheers,
James

[Supergrobie]

Hi!

Can U detail the type of SDRAM?
-> The 'normal' Size of the SDRAM
-> The Speed in ns?
-> The Company of the type you used?
-> The detailed Code on the sdram?

Thanx
Stevie

[MADmanFREE]

......This upgrade won't do any effect on the colour depth of XDA. Colour depth is taken care by VGA and LCD circuit, not the memory.....


I was lead to believe that due to the 32meg ram the XDA has limited colour depth, 4096? So you then get 64MB and you end up with 16bit colour depth..

I can't remember where I read this. I think it may have been a memory selling site. And they mentioned that upon returning the device you would have better colour depth....

I'll to look into this a little more

Martin

[Carlos]

That is completely untrue.

[Anonymous]

First of all: excellent site. :D

But: :!:

1. A section about DIY RAM upgrades incl. manual ´d be helpful as long as many users want to DIY (incl. me…)

2. (more important…) Is anyone of your team on the job about isolating the driver needed to run XDAs with 128 MB RAM? Just got answer from PocketPc.com:

Dear Doesn´t matter,

We do not ship the chips out. the 128MB upgrade also requires our proprietary driver. The XDA is one of the most difficult upgrades that we do and it is not user installable.

Best Regards,

blablabla


I think I gonna handle getting to other sources of chips, but the driver-situation is a REAL problem...




Thanxx in advance, Krusty :wink:

[Anonymous]

Hey all,

I had the upgrade to 128M completed on my T-Mobile recently and it's well worth it. I'm using the t2t driver to access the upper 64M. The driver is serialized to only work on my phone though (using last four digits of serial number).

:D It is fabulous! :D I'm now trying to figure out how to cram the driver into the mkrom program (as well as pocket informant, fonix voice dial, and a couple other packages).

T-Mobile PocketPC Phone
128M Running OS 1.1 (a bit tweaked)

[Sebi]

Hey rdm128 !

It is good idea !
Can you send me the driver ? :oops:

Thx,
Sebi

[Peter Poelman]

I was planning to do a write-up soon on how at least some of the JTAG pads on the board were located. As it is only the pictures are available, but as you can see we removed the BGA chips, and we trace paths on the board now. So we may be able to locate an easy spot for you to pick up L14 (//RAS_2/SDCS_2) on the ARM.

In case you're wondering: it took an oven, and some careful manipulation. Images and work courtesy of W4XY.

http://xda-developers.com/jtag

[Carlos]

In case you're wondering: it took an oven, and some careful manipulation.
Crazy bastards. I wish I was close enough to come out for some of these hacking sessions. Makes me miss the early days of getting together to hack up Heathkit computers (my first one in 1979 had 4k of RAM) and their OS.

[Sebi]

Hi XDA developer !

I was planning to do a write-up soon on how at least some of the JTAG pads on the board were located. As it is only the pictures are available, but as you can see we removed the BGA chips, and we trace paths on the board now. So we may be able to locate an easy spot for you to pick up L14 (//RAS_2/SDCS_2) on the ARM.


Can you send me where is the location in the PCB of L14 on the StrongArm processor ?

Best regards,
Sebi

[Sebi]

Hi XDADevelopers !

I was planning to do a write-up soon on how at least some of the JTAG pads on the board were located. As it is only the pictures are available, but as you can see we removed the BGA chips, and we trace paths on the board now. So we may be able to locate an easy spot for you to pick up L14 (//RAS_2/SDCS_2) on the ARM.

What about this think ?

Regards,

Sebi

[W4XY]

Hi,

About the L14 trace: It looks like it goes to both RAM IC's on the RAS pin. I measure about 35 Ohms so it is not a direct connect. I can't trace any of the other RAS pins, so who knows what the configuration should be?

[jamesthrs]

Hey all,

I had the upgrade to 128M completed on my T-Mobile recently and it's well worth it. I'm using the t2t driver to access the upper 64M. The driver is serialized to only work on my phone though (using last four digits of serial number).

:D It is fabulous! :D I'm now trying to figure out how to cram the driver into the mkrom program (as well as pocket informant, fonix voice dial, and a couple other packages).

T-Mobile PocketPC Phone
128M Running OS 1.1 (a bit tweaked)


Hi rdm128,
Can you send the driver to me?

Thanks,
James

[ntabikha]

yea realy! i mean... cant we CHANGE our serial # to mach that driver?
(incase we want to do our OWN upgrades :P)

[abat]

Hey,

how did you guys remove old chips and installed the new ones? I am fairly experienced in this stuff, but want tot make sure I don't screw up my precious XDA...

Thanks all!

[ntabikha]

well, its a direct replacement of the memory chips. pin for pin.
except that they said that the OS cannot use more than 64 mb directly,
so anything above has to be as a ram disk.
in theory, you can have 1 gig of ram disk. depending on the chips you use, right?

i dunno, im happy with my upgrade, without the ram disk.
i got a gig of SD anyway. :wink:

[monika69]

All,

You may use 2x SDRAM chip with spec below:
- 256 Mbit with configuration 4M x 16bit x 4 banks
- LVTTL
- TSOP II-54 pin
- Freq 133Mhz (PC133) or 100Mhz (PC100)

The most important thing is the pin layout must macth with Intel Strong Arm SA1110 Development board schematic, you may download this schematic for free from Intel website. Samsung and micron has put this chips on mass production, I myself use samsung.

James

the thing is that these information you are referring to are not presently available on Intel site (I am talking about the schematics) - see the links enclosed :( :

http://www.intel.com/design/pca/applicationsprocessors/retdocs.htm

http://www.intel.com/design/strong/schems/278279.htm

can you direct me somewhere else where that documents is present pls ??

regards, monika

[mikhail]

well, its a direct replacement of the memory chips. pin for pin.
except that they said that the OS cannot use more than 64 mb directly,
so anything above has to be as a ram disk.
in theory, you can have 1 gig of ram disk. depending on the chips you use, right?

i dunno, im happy with my upgrade, without the ram disk.
i got a gig of SD anyway. :wink:

if its os dependent, then wouldn't wm2003 complete the job? i mean, if u flash the xda I with wm 2003, and since the xda II has 128 meg ram (right?), wouldn't a simple chip replacement work? (well not that simple a chip replacement!)

[monika69]

although I am very keen on doing so ... apparently, no one in my country has a machine to do the upgrade

regards,
monika

[datas_brother]

Hi,

Has anybody figured out if 2003 solves to RAM Dick problem? Does anyone have part numbers and manufacturers for SDRAM chips that work?

Data