I picked one up today for a NeXTstation Turbo Color. Fingers crossed that it works, although I don't yet know how to test for it once installed.
Honestly there's not much to do with them yet. They were rare in their time. Hopefully now that they are available cheaply it opens up some creative juices for the software devs out there.
Superb! I was wondering when this might become available. I've just bought the dsp simm board and 4x 4MB sills from the guy on his tindie page. Great stuff!
If anyone determines how to test the dsp memory please do let us know. Maybe there is an old mp3 player that uses it?
Hello NeXT Community: It is awesome that a DSP Chip is now available and then I go on a blog about a DSP chip reseller in this economy.
Your best price on this DSP chip is direct from the eBay seller at $29
So Heck I liked the price so much I bought 20 of them ,
Figuring praise the lord, hallelujah , we can now fill that empty slot everyone asked me about on the NeXT motherboard ,
However many faired much worse after they had blue smoke trying to jam a 72 pin simm in that slot or 68 pin or 64 pin , well thankfully I had a spare motherboard for them. Even I did a mad science experiment on a parts board and found that an Apple rom chip actually did fit and no blue smoke but did nothing except fill the slot.
So Kudos to the engineer of the DSP as it is only 2024 finally a break through and I might as well fill up the empty DSP slot in the NeXT's, my past customers will no doubt buy one.
I'm integrating a lot of systems currently and his price is reasonable. I'm not sure what 96K will do but their are a few NeXT DSP apps that may have a performance bump, like the DSP record which lets you hook up a Digital microphone to the DSP port or Digital Ears even an EarthQuake App that hooks up to a rictor scale monitor .
Also I'm wondering what should my ethical sales approach be on this one be as DSP chips have been the holy friggin grail ? Hey we now have a 96 K DSP Chip for sale would you like to upgrade it with your NeXT ? I can't sell it for $29 , heck I'm already paying Tax on it and a chance importing it so that won't do my cost $32 .
I'm obviously not super greedy were there a Devil on my shoulder $99.95 seriously would not be over the top for this chip , if you actually had to manufacture this chip and everything associated with it . The guy is a design and manufacturing vertical integration magician.
So this DSP chip is for sale at $29, is one hell of a deal no question and that is like wholesale pricing like COSTCO but then again not huge demand for this chip as how many NeXT computers are there left functioning and of those who really needs a DSP chip.
Where do I come in at on this upgrade from a business stand point? As I don't want to tick people off, am I obligated to say oh go to eBay buy it for $29, done deal . However, what is the fun in that this is a new shiny bling trinket for our NeXT . Who cares what it does i want one :)
As a Sales guy, well I have them here in stock (shortly) ,
Value Add:
Where I will install it as a fun add on to future systems:)
bundles
Zulu SD with apps ,
whilst we are doing new caps for them ,
New ram, I like the guys ram look as well but I'm still well stocked
I can actually recommend which ones make a difference as heck we all need a rictor scale add on lol shit happens,
I'll have a list of apps they can install, thinking on the fly here may be making a dsp CD or sd makes sense and
as the DSP NeXT Apps are very obscure and I know where they are saving the goose chase .
Well DSP apps that will actually use it; things are fluid but we will figure this out.
I think if I sell it for $49 with value added stuff , once I figure that out is not out of bounds
and probably tell them my cost which is around $32 and the mark up tp $49 for me to charge for this chip.
I don't think will be a deal breaker and
It is already on this side of the pond (shortly :)
Yes by all means they can still go to eBay , I did and
if they are in Europe makes sense for them time wise and saving on shipping probably.
As I will have value added NeXT sales knowledge which apps to add inevitably.
I just discovered the Cassandra.app this evening for example
with Casandra you can use your NeXT as an alarm clock and appointment calendar .
On another note:
I also have tried to become a reseller for him but have not heard back , he is probably very busy like me!
And in talking with forum friends, my guess is at that price probably not much wiggle room on his end .
and I bought 20 to show him I am serious about growing his sales.
Constructive Criticism for another one of his products:
I also bought some of his NeXT Logo Bios Battery replacement using a Watch battery ,
I'm going to be very honest on this one .
I'm not trying to become the Panasonic 2/3 Volt bios battery king lol seriously or
corner the market on bios batteries
but here is my experience so far with the NeXT Logo Replacement battery .
Yours experience may be different,
I do not recommend the NeXT Logo battery replacement he is offering in its current design state.
Especially for the Turbo Cube Motherboard where the battery mount is right on the corner .
The unbiased video shows NeXT logo metal bling design comes hella close to making contact with the Cube Magnesium Case , shrinking the footprint of the logo would resolve it.
I also showing how it pops out away to easy , it literally sprang through the air like a tiddlywink and with my damn hip pain, it was not easy retrieving it from the floor,
I consider myself very good with NeXT hardware ahem but have not been able to get it "simply to work" lol which is a problem for me.
I'm not sure why ; which is kind of funny all things considered , to make sure,.
I bought replacement batteries as they all can't be DOA
and I'm hooking up a meter to test voltage....
when I have time to futz with something that should just work and I've decided ,
I'm not going to sell the shiny NeXT logo battery for damn sure.
I made a video showing this embarrassing BS that is not how it was supposed to go ,
I was trying to show it off from a newby stand point....
In fact the NeXT Logo Battery is so easily jarred loose trying to put it into place because the metal tabs that hold the normal bios batteries in place act as a coiled spring, fortunately had my glasses on .
I see this scenario playing out , typical package handling process jars it loose.
bouncing around on a motherboard whilst in transit is no good ,
I envision it potentially decapitating caps if you bought one then dinging up traces ,
you will see, may be it works for you , if the system is stationary still a pain. Sprooooing....
Oh additionally Bios battery removal consequence ,
NeXT rom changes to default ....
then you have go into system parameters
and reset the default boot device from en to sd .
In conclusion These NeXT Logo Bios battery replacements would make better hat pins or cufflinks, even bottle openers ,yep it works as a bottle opener lol .
So my $49 DSP chip price discussion and reasoning?
As Yes, I need to eat , keep the lights on
and I am paying 2 employees, now one in advance at +- $800 a month for 40 hours work on her flextime schedule,
I have only known her for a few month's.
Why in advance? I made a deal that works out for both of us as I was paying her $30 an hour , which I felt was a bit high for cleaning and go for this go for that.
She was going to be evicted and foreclosed on like with in days so now she can keep her trailer and a roof over her head,
Crazy what they charge to rent a space on a trailer you own now.
I stepped in and saved the day.
The other side of the coin is I never know really when she will show up , seriously , often no warning , 10 at night
lol but she does a good job when she is here call it flew time .
She has been interviewing but nothing yet in the interim it is ok.
The second Tom a really good friend I've known for many years , he is retired but it is tough even with a pension making ends meet.
So $25 an hour, he enjoys it and i keep him busy.
We all get along it is fun here for once,
We are all in our 60's , we joke about it is really hard to find work , even with all this experience
and I stepped in to help them and I need the help here with the medical stuff I have going on so they are in return helping me,
I'm supposed to be retired lol and I don't make loads of money in fact ,
what I am doing is a miracle , NeXT was and is a miracle
and I thank you all for supporting the Black Hole as it is not easy to keep my niche in a vintage NeXT hardware business.
I'm trying to be fair with my prices and thoroughly understand my break even point which I have to base on my micro economic strategy and Colorado is no longer cheap easy living.
Some countries are on a whole different level or sliding scale of commerce , so if you watch this youtube on grocery store prices in Alaska, we all are living cheap apparently
https://youtu.be/6zVvMvrjOtk?si=tD5lPqzXWPDdg7Ss where prices we're off the charts lie $10 loafs of bread , $12.50 Gallon of Milk , Heck bottled water is on sale for $37 lol Rant Concluded on the other end of the price spectrum is TEMU and Ali Express ..... In conclusion I think my pricing is fair , I have to base pricing on the economy I'm living in and I appreciate your business. I hope everything is going well for you all.
Also I've heard if you use a Tor Browser , set your current location to Spain and buy Airline tickets the prices are ridiculously cheap try it , you will be amazed.
Received my DSP ram today, installed it adn tested with DSPMemorySize. it returns 32768k external ram, which according to the readme shows the ram module is working fine!
"Currently, it simply test if there are actually 32k unique memory cells that can
;; retain values. This is done by writing the address value into each memory location,
;; and reading them back to see if the address == content."
"If all 32kwords can retain unique values, we assume the RAM size is 32kw (it may be
;; actually larger if larger SIMM is installed."
I ran Mandelbrot on my Color Turbo slab and it took 32 seconds to render. I ran it three times to confirm. I don't have a DSP memory expansion installed, but I do have 128 MB of 70ns main RAM, if that matters.