Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Memory characteristics [1]

Type
Volatile?
Writeable?
Erase Size
Max Erase Cycles
Cost (per Byte)
Speed
SRAM
Yes
Yes
Byte
Unlimited
Expensive
Fast
DRAM
Yes
Yes
Byte
Unlimited
Moderate
Moderate
Masked ROM
No
No
n/a
n/a
Inexpensive
Fast
PROM
No
Once, with a device programmer
n/a
n/a
Moderate
Fast
EPROM
No
Yes, with a device programmer
Entire Chip
Limited (consult datasheet)
Moderate
Fast
EEPROM
No
Yes
Byte
Limited (consult datasheet)
Expensive
Fast to read, slow to erase/write
Flash
No
Yes
Sector
Limited (consult datasheet)
Moderate
(Cheap by Z)
Fast to read, slow to erase/write
NVRAM
No
Yes
Byte
Unlimited
Expensive (SRAM + battery)
Fast

[1] Barr, Michael. "Memory Types," Embedded Systems Programming, May 2001, pp. 103-104.

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