NEW RAM CARDS for the Portfolio - available NOW!
------------------------------------------------

Good news for all Port users !
About half a year ago some german Portfolio users, (with 
Upgrade Guide's author Stefan Kaechele in particular) decided
to build a low cost RAM card after it had become impossible to
get some new "original" cards (at least here in Germany).
The idea appeared during the work on the Portfolio Upgrade
Guide, when a new kind of low-power chip was tested for the
internal memory upgrade.

With Andreas Goebel, a young electronic engineer (who had
never seen a Portfolio before ;-)), the right man to develop
the cards was found real soon and appeared to be very 
interested in this new challenge.

According to the Port's hardware specifications he designed
two types of RAM cards. One card comes with a small lithium
battery to maintain data for at least a year when the card is
removed from the Portfolio.
This card appears to be the right choice for people who use
several cards and tend to change them quite often.

The other card uses a special type of (built-in) capacitor
which is powered, or rather re-loaded, by the Portfolio, 
even if the "low-battery" message has already appeared.
(This message just indicates that there is not enough power
left to run the display. The internal RAMs and a memory card
are still powered for some time.)
Whenever this card is taken off the Portfolio, data is main-
tained for at least 48 hours.
This card is ideal for users who do not use other RAM cards
and leave it in the Port most of the time.

With both cards you can choose just the capacity of memory
storage you actually need. Both cards have been designed to
take up either one, two or three 128K chips.
They can be used just like a standard A: drive, but with one
important difference: the chips are NOT connected with a 
logic chip but need to be selected by small dip switches.
In other words, on a 3x128K card you get 384K to store your
data, but you can only access one chip at a time.

What appears to be a major drawback at the first sight does
make sense when you take a look at the prices of custom RAM 
cards. One thing that makes them expensive is all the
additional stuff that needs to be on the cards to make them
appear to DOS just a like "normal" disk drive.
But the idea was to provide one of the cheapest "port"able 
machines with a real low-cost RAM card, so that at least 
this feature of a standard card had to be sacrificed.
(Remember the Port's CLIPBOARD to transfer data between the
 applications and between the different drives....)

Important:   It is NECESSARY to "switch off" the cards with 
----------   their dip switches whenever they are not in use 
             to avoid the capacitor or the battery to be 
             drained rapidly !

Instead of this slight inconveniences the cards react just 
like the custom cards. They are fast, reliable, don't have
to be cleaned by a driver program and, of course, they are
of the same size as the "originals". 
Each card fits completely into the Portfolio's card slot.
On the lower left corner (the one that sticks out of the 
Port) are the small switches (and on the capacitor card
a tiny cabinet to take up the "Gold-Cap").


The prices:
-----------

Capacitor cards - 1 x 128K :   80 $
                  2 x 128K :   95 $
                  3 x 128K :  115 $

Battery cards   - 1 x 128K :   90 $
                  2 x 128K :  110 $
                  3 x 128K :  130 $

(Sorry, no PO, COD's or credit card orders !)

All cards are manufactured in Germany. Depending on the
amount of orders and the availability of the components you
should allow 2 to 4 weeks for delivery.

(If you want to make sure to get your card as soon as 
possible, send me e-mail when you have posted your order.
I'll pass the information to Andreas Goebel to make sure
that he keeps everything in stock when your letter arrives.

Consider that as an "extra service" of a real Portfolio 
addicted guy ;-))    My CIS-ID is : 100113,2626 )

Add 10 $ per package for shipping within Europe, customers
from all other countries please add 20 $ per package.
Send your order to:

	Andreas Goebel
	Glockengarten 43
	D-44803 Bochum
	(phone: ++49-(0)234-355369)


