Microchip introduces a line of serial SRAM with larger capacity and faster speeds

     In response to widespread customer demand for larger and faster SRAM, Microchip Technology has expanded its serial SRAM product line to capacity up to 4 Mb. The speed of the serial peripheral interface/Serial quad-channel input/output interface (SPI/SQI) has been increased to 143 MHz. The new product line includes devices available in two different capacities of 2 Mb and 4 Mb, designed to provide a lower-cost alternative to traditional parallel SRAM products, and includes an optional battery backup switching circuit in the SRAM memory to retain data in the event of a power outage.

     Parallel RAM requires a large package and at least 26-35 single-chip microcomputer (MCU) I/O interfaces, while Microchip serial SRAM devices come in a low-cost 8-pin package with a high-speed SPI/SQI communication bus that can be easily integrated with only 4-6 MCU I/O pins. This reduces the need for more expensive, high-pin count MCUS, helping to minimize the size of the entire board.

     The 2 Mb and 4 Mb serial SRAM devices address the most common shortcoming of serial SRAM - parallel is faster than serial memory, and with the optional four-channel SPI (4 bits per clock cycle), the bus speed is increased to 143 MHz, greatly narrowing the speed gap between serial and parallel solutions.

     Jeff Leasure, Director of Microchip's Memory Products Business Unit, said: "Serial SRAM is a popular solution for engineers who need more RAM than MCU on-board RAM but want to reduce costs and total board size. Microchip's 2 Mb and 4 Mb serial SRAM devices are designed to replace expensive parallel SRAM with a simple and cost-effective alternative."

     With unlimited durability and zero write time, these small-size, low-power, high-performance serial SRAM devices are an excellent choice for applications involving continuous data transfer, buffering, data logging, metering, and other mathematical and data-intensive functions. These devices range in capacity from 64 Kb to 4 Mb and support SPI, SDI, and SQI bus modes.