IRIXNetwork

Posted 01-15-2026, 03:51 PM,

Stumbled across:

   

https://sdz-mods.com/index.php/2026/01/1...am-module/

Packed the files and uploaded them here: https://contrib.irixnet.org/sdz-mods/SGI...ASE.tar.xz

Per sdz-mods:

1.SCH_BRD - contains editable schematic and board file. Format is Eagle CAD, but they can be imported in other tools, like Kicad.

2.SCH_PDF- schematic in pdf format.

3.P&P - pick and place files

4.BOM

5.GERBER - gerber files

6.JLC - contains all the needed files for a production run at JLCPCB. Just upload the GERBER zip file, BOM file and CPL file. They currently have everything in stock except CDCVF2510APW and SN74ALVCH16721DGG. These can be found at Mouser/Digikey etc.

Important PCB specs:
-thickness 1.2mm
-finish: ENIG
-gold fingers (beveling not needed)
-stackup (for JLC) JLC06121H-3313A (ideally) or JLC06121H-3313.


The exact RAM part number I used is IS42S16400N-7TL, but one could also use:
IS42S16400N-6TL
IS42S16400N-6TLI
IS42S16400N-7TLI

IS42S16400J-6TL
IS42S16400J-6TLI
IS42S16400J-7TL
IS42S16400J-7TLI

Other RAM ICs could be used instead, as long as they're organized as 1M x 16bits x 4 banks (64Mb) and are in a 54-pin TSOP II package.

Posted 01-15-2026, 06:10 PM,

If you order hard gold plating for the edge connector, you may wince at the price. JLC does offer it now, but the calculator defaults to 10 µ" thickness, far below IPC standard specs of 30 µ".
ENIG plating on the edge connector will only withstand a few insertion cycles, but that may be "good enough" if you never plan to remove these DIMMs.

Posted 01-15-2026, 06:22 PM,

I was hoping somebody would actually post some prices so we know what we're talking about here. Because if ordering a full 1GB of RAM parts is actually more than Used/OEM 128MB sticks currently go for on other markets than it may not in fact be a deal to build your own. What kind of prices are we talking about here?

Posted 01-15-2026, 07:02 PM,

Weblacky, you can upload the files yourself and see the calculated price without requesting a quote. JLC/LCSC are going to be at or near the least expensive option for automated assembly, especially if they have the components in their inventory (if you send components to them it becomes more complicated). The alternative is assemble it yourself, depending on what tools you have available. Also remember the shipping fees, tariffs, and customs agent fees.

Posted 01-15-2026, 07:05 PM,

The other aspect to consider is that our memory modules are not going to last forever. That's why I'm very thankful for SDZ doing this. I watched his voodoo projects being tested by people like this does not compute and I did not expect him to come and out of the gate start swinging on some of this badass stuff but I highly appreciate his contribution to the community

Posted 01-15-2026, 07:29 PM,

I didn't say anything negative about this project and cost was mentioned, between the two forums, so I brought up the obvious question of what the cost might even be. Yes the sets come up pretty rarely, so of course it's a good thing that there's more options.

I have zero experience with PCB production/design and since it was mentioned that there's even values you might want to change - it's already beyond my limited experience. Without people crossing the bridge ahead of me and making small refinements or at least giving advice it would be unwise for me to take the plunge. So "uploading the files myself", would probably be the dumbest way for me to go about it. Without any guidance, I'm liable to make a mistake which would end up ordering something I cannot use due to my own ignorance, and I'd be out of, probably, a considerable sum for my mistake.

I'm not in the position to be first on this, because ordering these designs is outside of my knowledge base.  The chance of me misordering something , checking the wrong option, or leaving something out would be incredibly high, hence I'll be waiting for other people to cross this road before me.

I would assume the higher volume you go the lower the individual price, so I would definitely be open to a group buy on the PCBs with whatever minor, easy, assembly: resistors and capacitors, the production house could do at a larger volume, 100+.

This post was last modified: 01-15-2026, 07:36 PM by weblacky.

Posted 01-15-2026, 07:47 PM,

@weblacky
I haven't posted any prices because, as these boards will be manufactured in low volumes, there's quite a big difference between making 10 modules or 100 modules. Setup costs are the same, regardless if one orders 10 or 100 pcs. What I can say is, that if one orders 100 modules, the price is around 30-40$ per module.

This post was last modified: 01-15-2026, 08:44 PM by sdz.

Posted 01-15-2026, 09:51 PM,

(01-15-2026, 07:47 PM)sdz Wrote: @weblacky
I haven't posted any prices because, as these boards will be manufactured in low volumes, there's quite a big difference between making 10 modules or 100 modules. Setup costs are the same, regardless if one orders 10 or 100 pcs. What I can say is, that if one orders 100 modules, the price is around 30-40$ per module.

Thank you, that's all I was basically asking. I realize that there's going be a minimum order for any of these custom boards. And obviously if you're just doing one system you're only ordering eight modules. That's got to be more expensive than ordering a much larger volume. I was just curious what type of prices we were even in the ballpark for.

It's a fantastic project and we're all very grateful that you're so willing to share your hard work openly, as I freely admit PCB design is something I've never been able to crack even though I have basic CAD training. It's an enormous gap in my skill set that never seems to get me better. So I'm obviously grateful to other people for doing such high-quality work. But that also means I have no knowledge of submitting plans to any of these low volume prototype manufacturing houses. And of course it's not their job to tell you if you did something wrong, they just follow your directions.  So if I select the wrong option (thickness, material, plating), that's totally on me. 

From my experience, I'm the guy who would say "oh I want these in bright blue, so I'm going to select the blue PCB type", only to later find out that action instantly changed the thickness to the wrong setting and I didn't see that or that material is only available in the wrong thickness and I now have a misorder. When putting in such an important order with exact directions you need to be confident that everything is correct. I don't even know what I don't know on this topic...

Posted 01-16-2026, 11:57 AM,

No problem!

Those are valid points. If you (or anyone else) need help when ordering modules, I can provide support.

Posted 01-16-2026, 10:01 PM,

Out of curiosity do you care to share with your other plans might be with regards to building stuff for sgi? Just kind of curious. It would be awesome to see if someone could replicate the SGI Indy CPU board for instance because there's a crap ton of R5000s out there. We could even probably eventually build challenge s systems in that regard. In terms of video card related things (since you have voodoo stuff on your website) SGI has a custom opengl driver for everything and essentially it seems that everything is broken down into opengl commands so it's not an architecture that we could leverage the voodoo with without breaking IRISGL. That being said Newport Graphics would not be difficult to replicate for the right engineer (I'm not holding out hope unfortunately, fixed function gpus are not something that most people know how to work with)