Re: Turbo BX24 | BasicX | EmbeddedRelated.com

Hello all, The major touble I am having is the fixed size of ram and eprom memory on the BX24. I have filled the eprom with code and have no option for expansion. I also have done a lot of "juggling" sharing variables and stacks between functions so as my program doesn't crash due to lack of RAM. A turbo BX24 sounds great as long as there is always an option for the standard version. However if the BX24-turbo does go into production, what an ideal opportunity to incorporate the options of extra memory (ram and eprom). A BX24-turbo would only be useful to me if there was sufficient memory available to utilise the power of the turbo. My 2 cents worth David.

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David I couldn't agree more - we need more sram for the BX24. The biggest problem for NetMedia in adding sram is that the 8535 processor used on the BX24 does not directly support external sram to directly expand the CPU's working memory. So we would have to compromise in the same way the BASIC program code is stored in external serial EEPROM, that is also a compromise if it wasn't for the fast SPI bus the BX24 would be as slow as a Basic Stamp. (well ok not quite that slow ) The next biggest problem is that sram chips are physically large and would be very difficult to get on the 24 pin package. The next problem is the sram would need to have a serial SPI interface to have enough speed to be useable in the same way we use internal CPU sram. The only chips I have found that come even close is the Dallas DS2404 which uses the Dallas 3 wire interface (but its fast) and only gives you 512 Bytes of sram, it is in a 16 pin package so its not to big. A better really cool solution I just found (from a tip on this list) is the FRAM's from Ramtron. They have a chip in a 8 pin package that has 8k Bytes, works at full sram speed has a 5mhz SPI interface and is very very low power, it is also non-volatile but requires no external battery or other components at all. It uses technology sorta like a EEPROM but can be rewritten 10 Billion times (SPI EEPROMS can be written only 100,000 times). This would be a no brainer to drop on the SPI bus on the BX24 package. That would give us 8K of non volatile sram speed memory with the addition of one tiny 8 pin surface mount chip ! They would likely have to either add another layer to the current two layer BX24 PCBD and mount the FRAM on the bottom or make the 24 pin package into a 28 or 32 pin package and use the extra length on top to accommodate the FRAM chip. Thank you Ron A. Nucci -----Original Message----- From: David Blow <> To: <> Date: Sunday, November 05, 2000 3:33 PM Subject: [BasicX] Re: Turbo BX24 >Hello all, > >The major touble I am having is the fixed size of ram and eprom >memory on the BX24. > >I have filled the eprom with code and have no option for expansion. I >also have done a lot of "juggling" sharing variables and stacks >between functions so as my program doesn't crash due to lack of RAM. > >A turbo BX24 sounds great as long as there is always an option for >the standard version. However if the BX24-turbo does go into >production, what an ideal opportunity to incorporate the options of >extra memory (ram and eprom). > >A BX24-turbo would only be useful to me if there was sufficient >memory available to utilise the power of the turbo. > >My 2 cents worth > >David.

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Three comments: First, the burning need is for additional memory, as others have pointed out. Second, A 25% speed increase would barely be noticable in most applications; large increases (100% or more) would be interesting, especially if additional memory and other features were added. Third, since a new crystal doesn't cost any more than the old one, why not just release it at the same cost, call it a product improvement, and make all your customers happy? Computers get faster all the time, but if the price went up with every speed increase, we'd be paying $50,000 for a PC right now. Just my 3 cents worth. Chuck

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Discussion Groups | BasicX | Re: Turbo BX24

Re: Turbo BX24 - David Blow - Nov 5 18:32:00 2000

Re: Re: Turbo BX24 - Ron A. Nucci - Nov 6 11:21:00 2000

Re: Turbo BX24 - Charles Davis - Nov 13 9:06:00 2000