Hi everybody

I have come across this RAM chip that I'm unable to identify. I've looked at a number of designs and it doesn't seem to conclusively match anything I've seen or are familiar with. There are no useful identifying marks either on the RAM stick itself. I've attached a photo. Sorry it's not larger, but the forum has a dimension limit.

I can give some of the chip numbers that are on the stick. These are shown below:

CY7C199-20VC (The RAM stick sees to contain at least 7 of these. After reading a datasheet of these, each one apparently contains only 32kb of RAM. That can't be right surely? Is it that old?)

CY7C199-15VC x 1
CY74FCT373 x 2
CYM9245PB-20C x 1

Is anybody able to identify the type and size of this RAM chip better than I have?

Thanks

Attached Images

dscf0924s.jpg (27.5 KB, 26 views)

That's a tricky looking thing. It appears to have SO-DIMM looking interface, but doesn't look like a conventional memory module at all.

It may well be an upgrade module for something specific. Some devices have historically has upgrade options, like sound cards that take memory-like modules for wave table synthesis.

It's hard to tell scale from that picture. How long is it?

I guess it could be, I have no history on this device at all. I think it could also be very old memory, say from the 286/386/486 era? Any ideas on that theory? For all I know, it could be XT memory

The memory chip is fairly small, roughly 8x3cm (3.2x1.2 inches).

The pinout looks too dense to be very old and the notch and length are right for a SO-DIMM module (the standard slot type for laptops), although it could be a SO-SIMM (very old standard slot type for laptops) but I've never seen them. It's the configuration of the chips and the chip packages that looks odd.

I'm highly dubious it's a memory module, or at least, that it's a conventional memory module. My guess is that It's some kind of expansion module, or it's a odd laptop memory module.

Does say anything like ddr2 on it.

I know the chip is quite old as it's been in my possession for quite some time, three or four years easily. It doesn't have any identifying marks and is too old to be DDR2 or anything like that.

I would have to agree that it most obviously resembles SO-DIMM, it doesn't seem to match anything else, either very old or more recent. When I looked at the pin outs on both older and newer units, I do agree that it looks more recent than those chips used in the 386 era. So I agree with your (Syphus) conclusion on that. As to the chip layout, I have no real idea.

I guess we'll never get to the bottom of it anyway, so it'll remain a mystery Thanks for all your replies though, appreciated.

Interesting stuff

Maybe someone who knows what they're talking about will find this thread and tell us :P

Maybe it is a UFO?? Just kidding

Looks Laptopish to me, SO-DIMM

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Yeh It looks like lap top ram there pin placment is different to a pc and are much smaller.

hi

looks like a simm to me
looking at the pins.. there are about 112 of them, which apparantly means it's probably a simm for a very old apple mac (just googled a 112pin simm)

its PC100/133 pentium 3 laptop memory .ie Tiny A360

P4 memory has the indent near the middle

Its a Simm in my opinion, it doesnt look like Lappy memory to me. The last time I saw memory like that I was installing Simms into new machines

difficult to judge without some scale but if it is sitting on a CD then it would be too short for PC ram which also has 2x cutouts
here is the comparison between P3 PC100 laptop ram and and some PC100 computer ram
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...tNboo/dimm.jpg