Question Is ram stacking possible for n64?

[Guid]

Just wondering if anyone knows if this is possible or not? 2mb chips seem lots easier to find and are more affordable but want to save space as well.

 

[CrazyGadget]

Physically stacking? No, for a couple of reasons:

• It would require a great deal of manual wiring, given that RDRAM is controlled in a daisy chain, where you would have have to wire SIN / SOUT of each chip... it would end up not being a 1:1 connection.
• RDRAM runs at 500MHz, which makes impedance-matching wildly important. It is so sensitive that many of us here have had trouble getting a stable Akira Method / other form of RAM termination on our trims. Manually wiring RDRAM together / physically stacking will lead to mismatched impedances and lots of crosstalk, which will result in the system not working.
• The RAM is the hottest part of an N64, so stacking them would end up overheating the chips, even if you slapped a heatsink on top of the top two.

If you really wanted to, you could create a custom PCB that mimics some of the 3rd party expansion paks that use 2 2mb RDRAM chips, then try something like a RAM bend? I'm not even fully sure that would work, but it's a possibility. Definitely not compact, that's for sure.

 

[Guid]

Physically stacking? No, for a couple of reasons:

• It would require a great deal of manual wiring, given that RDRAM is controlled in a daisy chain, where you would have have to wire SIN / SOUT of each chip... it would end up not being a 1:1 connection.
• RDRAM runs at 500MHz, which makes impedance-matching wildly important. It is so sensitive that many of us here have had trouble getting a stable Akira Method / other form of RAM termination on our trims. Manually wiring RDRAM together / physically stacking will lead to mismatched impedances and lots of crosstalk, which will result in the system not working.
• The RAM is the hottest part of an N64, so stacking them would end up overheating the chips, even if you slapped a heatsink on top of the top two.

If you really wanted to, you could create a custom PCB that mimics some of the 3rd party expansion paks that use 2 2mb RDRAM chips, then try something like a RAM bend? I'm not even fully sure that would work, but it's a possibility. Definitely not compact, that's for sure.

Thanks for the info, I just don’t like the thought of destroying oem expansion paks for their 4mb chips.

 

[Shaun_NK]

Think transforming instead of destroying and maybe that will bring you some peace