CompuServe Messages

You can plug a 1-meg ECS Agnus (#8372a) straight into your A500, replacing the current FAT Agnus [#8370 (NTSC), or #8371 (PAL)]. You will need a special chip puller, to prevent damaging the Agnus socket. At this point, the ECS Agnus will still be in 512K mode. Check the revision number of the motherboard, if it is rev.6 or higher, you can upgrade to 1-meg CHIP with no problems. IF it is rev.5, then it should work, BUT there is a chance it won't. As for the Spirit A501-slot expansion, I don't know if it can be re-configured as CHIP. Problems: Some programs are "dumb". If they detect "more than 512K" of memory in the Amiga, they will assume that part of it is FAST. They will try to utilitize the >512K memory as FAST, but in an Amiga that has only 1-meg (ALL CHIP) this leads to a system crash. If some FAST memory is also availible – there will be no problem. Some other programs, can't function correctly in an Amiga that has more than 512K, regardless of there being FAST memory availible. Both types are rare today, but there is some older programs that have this problems. Also, expanding the A500 to 1-meg CHIP is semi-permanent. Once the Agnus is configured to use 1-meg of memory, the A501 *must* be configured to be accessed as CHIP RAM and the A501 must be availible. (The A500 won't boot without the A501 expansion.) Ron.