One fun aspect of retrocomputing is that you get to max out all aspects of these systems without having to take out a bank loan, as tended to be the case when these systems were new. Less fun is that decades after systems like the Apple MacIntosch SE/30 were last sold, the 30-pin SIMMs that form the expandable RAM for these systems has become rather scarce. This has led many to make their own SIMM PCBs, including [Kay Koba] with a PCB for 4 MB SIMMs along with information on which memory and parity ICs are suitable for these SIMMs.
For systems like the MacIntosh SE/30 with 8 30-pin memory slots, the maximum capacity is 128 MB, but this comes with many gotchas due to its ROM being ’32-bit dirty’. While this can be circumvented by swapping in a ROM from a later MacIntosh variant, the less invasive way is to enable the MODE32 system extension and install eight 4 MB SIMMs for a total of 32 MB RAM. RAM chips for such 30-pin SIMMs can be scavenged from the far more common 72-pin SIMMs, along with any old new stock one may come across.
These 4 MB SIMM PCBs are offered for sale by [Kay] with optionally the SMD components (capacitors, resistors and LED) included in the package. The original PCB design is credited to work by [Zane Kaminski] whose GitHub profile leads to e.g. this 30-pin SIMM project.
Have you modded your MacIntosh or other retro system yet to the maximum RAM and storage limits?
Maxing Out Your MacIntosh With a 4 MB Memory Stick Kit
Source: Manila Flash Report
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