Microchip Technology expands its serial SRAM product line

     To meet the common customer demand for larger and faster SRAM, Microchip Technology has expanded its serial SRAM product line to include greater densities of up to 4Mb and increased SPI/SQI speeds to 143MHz. The 2Mb and 4Mb devices are low-cost alternatives to traditional parallel SRAM products and include an optional battery backup switching circuit in the SRAM memory to retain data in the event of a power outage.

     Unlike parallel RAM, which requires a large package and at least 26-35 MCU I/O interfaces, the company's serial SRAM devices are in a lower-cost 8-pin package and use a high-speed SPI/SQI communication bus that requires only 4-6 MCU I/O pins for easy integration. This reduces the need for more expensive high-pin count MCUS and helps minimize the footprint of the entire board.

     Addressing the most common shortcoming of serial SRAM - parallel speed is faster than serial memory - 2Mb and 4Mb serial SRAM devices have increased the bus speed capability to 143MHz with the optional quad SPI(4 bits per clock cycle), which greatly reduces the speed gap between solutions.

     "Serial SRAM is a popular solution for engineers who need more RAM than MCU memory available, but want to reduce cost and overall board size," said Jeff leure, head of Microchip's memory Products group. Microchip's 2Mb and 4Mb serial SRAM devices are designed to replace expensive parallel SRAM with a simple and cost-effective alternative."

     Small size, low-power, high-performance serial SRAM devices have unlimited durability and zero write time, making them an excellent choice for applications involving continuous data transfer, buffering, data logging, metering, and other mathematical and data-intensive functions. These devices offer densities from 64Kbit to 4Mb and support SPI, SDI, and SQI bus modes.