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Dr DSP
I'm not sure about the RTC. Most MCUs will have an RTC on board. I guess if the ...
Robotics Developer
What an interesting set of parts. The use of I2C makes it easy to interface ...
Ramtron rolls processor companion chips
Mark LaPedus
5/3/2011 8:16 PM EDT
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Ramtron International Corp. has expanded the company’s family of processor companion products.
The processor companion family integrates Ramtron's FRAM technology and peripheral chips. Ramtron’s new processor companion integrates a real-time clock (RTC) with a temperature compensation crystal oscillator (TCXO), 256-kilobits (Kb) of nonvolatile ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM), and a suite of peripheral functions.
One product, dubbed the FM31T378, is ideal for use in meters, elapsed time monitors, time-of-use recording, and other data-collection applications that require accurate time-stamping.
The complete FM31T37x family will include devices with 4Kb, 16Kb, 64Kb, and 256Kb of nonvolatile FRAM memory. The 4Kb, 16Kb and 64Kb densities within the family are expected to be available during the first half of 2011.
The FM31T37x family is offered in a standard 14-pin SOIC package. It operates from 2.7- to 5.5-volts using an I2C interface to access the memory and control all functions. The device offers a user programmable, lockable 64-bit serial number and has two battery-backed 16-bit event counters that can be used to log system intrusions (tamper events) or any other general-purpose event.
Samples are available for the FM31T378 in a 14-pin SOIC package, with prices starting at $3.89 for 25K piece quantities.
The processor companion family integrates Ramtron's FRAM technology and peripheral chips. Ramtron’s new processor companion integrates a real-time clock (RTC) with a temperature compensation crystal oscillator (TCXO), 256-kilobits (Kb) of nonvolatile ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM), and a suite of peripheral functions.
One product, dubbed the FM31T378, is ideal for use in meters, elapsed time monitors, time-of-use recording, and other data-collection applications that require accurate time-stamping.
The complete FM31T37x family will include devices with 4Kb, 16Kb, 64Kb, and 256Kb of nonvolatile FRAM memory. The 4Kb, 16Kb and 64Kb densities within the family are expected to be available during the first half of 2011.
The FM31T37x family is offered in a standard 14-pin SOIC package. It operates from 2.7- to 5.5-volts using an I2C interface to access the memory and control all functions. The device offers a user programmable, lockable 64-bit serial number and has two battery-backed 16-bit event counters that can be used to log system intrusions (tamper events) or any other general-purpose event.
Samples are available for the FM31T378 in a 14-pin SOIC package, with prices starting at $3.89 for 25K piece quantities.
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Robotics Developer
5/4/2011 12:39 PM EDT
What an interesting set of parts. The use of I2C makes it easy to interface with most processor chips and the small size and non-volatile memory will be most helpful in the targeted meters/POS/time stamping applications. I was expecting the chipset to provide expanded I/O capacities given the title of the article but was pleasantly surprised after reading it.
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Dr DSP
5/22/2011 6:41 PM EDT
I'm not sure about the RTC. Most MCUs will have an RTC on board. I guess if the RAMtron device can be instructed to store the RTC value into the memory without the need to read it out, it might be a slight benefit. Would be useful to have a short description of the use model in the article...
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