Re: Soft game settings vs. dipswitches?

Yea. But. The xicor part (below) is not an EEPROM. It is an SRAM with an
internal parallel EEPROM which is only used to store/restore to/from the
internal EEPROM when power is lost/restored. During normal power-on
operation it is no different that an ordinary SRAM.
The xicor part *sounds* like it would not be the best from a cost
standpoint, however.

-anders.

At 09:34 PM 4/5/00 -0500, you wrote:
> From an earlier post, Clay said the device was going to be in the page
> 0/page 1
>area of RAM, where it would be accessed possibly several THOUSAND times a
>SECOND.
>That is why he didn't want EEPROM. Plus EEPROM needs an erase and rewrite
>cycle
>that takes too long to be directly useful. For a tiny amount of storage
>that gets
>very little rewrite, like high scores and DIP switches, EEPROM works
>fine. But you
>then need to customize the hardware and software to work with it. What
>Clay was
>going to do is shadow it to the RAM, where EEPROM will NOT work.
>
>And, granted, my mag-core memory JOKE has almost as bad erase/rewrite
>characteristics as EEPROM, but NO wearout mode.
>
>
>Anders Knudsen wrote:
>
> > Roger my friend ;-)
> > from the Xicor page you can see that:
> > • High Reliability —Endurance: 1 Million Cycles
> > —Data Retention: 100 Years
> >
> > Let's look at the "wear-out" factor of the eeprom in this device. If you
> > turn your machine on/off 1 time every day (I'm sure you're not with this
> > frequency, but it's an example,) then at 1 million cycles we're looking at
> > an endurance of around 2700 years...LOL.
> >
> > -anders ;-)
> >
> > At 02:22 PM 4/5/00 -0500, you wrote:
> > >The problem here is that the "10 year" battery life scares some of the
> > >collectors and that EEPROM wears out. So what you need is something that
> > >doesn't wear out and has no battery. And if you throw in nostalgia
> value also
> > >that only leaves one thing---magnetic core memory! (Running for cover
> at high
> > >speed!)
> > >
> > >
> > >Clay Cowgill wrote:
> > >
> > > > > Other than the possible "nostalgia value" of doing it "the
> > > > >old-fashioned way" instead of using "them new-fangled menus", I
> don't see
> > > > >any disadvantage to it.
> > > >
> > > > "My car gets thirty rands to the hogshead and that's the way I like
> it!"
> > > >
> > > > > By the way - have you looked at Ramtron's ferroelectric RAM
> (FRAM)
> > > > >parts for this kind of thing?
> > > >
> > > > Actually I've talked to them for stuff at work (didn't work out-- too
> > > low of
> > > > density, too expensive, and not enough volume production).
> > > >
> > > > The main issue in this case is that the memory that does the saving
> is the
> > > > same stuff that's shadowed over the regular RAM area-- the CPU is
> actually
> > > > using the "save" RAM as page 0 and page 1 for the 6520. (So that means
> > > most
> > > > of your game variables and all the stack. It'll get hit thousands
> of times
> > > > a second.)
> > > >
> > > > I'm just using an ST MK48Z02. (Zeropower SRAM) Cheap and
> available with
> > > > second sources. The battery is built-in, so ten years down the
> road people
> > > > will just have to replace it. I'll socket it to make it easy. On
> the cool
> > > > "geek" factor list it gives me the option to drop in one of their
> > > > "timekeeper" versions and have a realtime clock too. (Ooooh-- high
> scores
> > > > with the time and date it was set! ;-)
> > > >
> > > > -Clay
> > > > ______________________________________________________
> > > > Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
> > > >
> > > >
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>--
>Windows:
>
>32 bit graphical interface for a
>16 bit patch for an
>8 bit operating system written for a
>4 bit processor by a
>2 bit company that can't stand
>1 bit of competition.
>
>
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Received on Thu Apr 6 11:46:56 2000