These Files:

Provided here, at no cost to you, are disk images and a copy of the user manual for the geoRAM device.  This includes copies of the two original diskettes that came in the package.  They were created using the COREi64 MiniXUM device and NIBtools.  If you have a MiniXUM or ZoomFloppy device connected to a 1571, then execute the following command to re-create the provided diskette images back into a real 1541 floppy diskette.

nibwrite <filename>

If you don't have a MiniXUM to accomplish that, please feel free to purchase one here, MiniXUM WITH case, or MiniXUM WITHOUT case.

About:

geoRAM from Berkeley Softworks was a memory expansion peripheral for use with GEOS 64 and 128.  It included new boot disks for both, which were required to use this unit, which is not compatible with the CBM 1764/1750 REU units.

This new GEOS release is designated GEOS 2.0r.

What's on the disks?

geoRAM requires replacement of the GEOS kernal and Configure files.  The supplied disks, after installation, are boot disks with these changed files.  The installation process is typical GEOS procedure, but it is especially important to remember to key your new boot disks to your existing Applications master disks, so that your existing copy-protected applications can be used with your new boot disks.  Read the installation section of the User's Guide carefully.  It contains the best set of GEOS installation instructions BSW has ever supplied.

Features:

From a GEOS user's point of view, the geoRAM is almost identical to the CBM 1750 REU.  It provides 512k of RAM that can be used to emulate the 1541 or 1571 drives, to "shadow" a 1541 (a full-disk cache scheme, similar to that used on high-price PCs and mainframes,) or to shadow the 1581 directory.  It does not support the DMA option present with the true REU units, since that requires the MMU chip present in those units, which is proprietary to Commodore.  This results in some operations being slower.  This is most noticeable when scrolling down a  geoPaint document, even when geoPaint and the document are on a RAM disk.

Like the REU units, geoRAM provides room for fast reboot of GEOS from BASIC, a home for the Superdebugger feature of geoProgrammer, and, perhaps most important, permits a program resident on one type of disk to access data files from a different type, since the "disk driver" portion of the desktop is automatically, and invisbily, stored there.

The special GEOS 2.0r boot disks are functionally equivalent to the respective GEOS 2.0 disks.  No new functions are provided.  The only changes, in fact, are to the GEOS KERNAL file, and to the CONFIGURE program.