128 MB RAM CARDS, paper weight? - Electronic Circuits Projects Diagrams Free

Johnson777717 · 30th January 2004, 12:12 AM

Hey folks!
I have a couple 128 MB SDRAM cards that I don't use any more. ( I upgraded to more RAM, but I only have two bank slots). Thus, these SDRAM cards are collecting dust.

Does anyone know of a circuit or interface that I can apply these to? I think it would be pretty cool to be able to interface this with a microcontroller or something, then add a LCD display and be able to store, call from memory. Possibly store digital media, or SOMETHING. Basicly anything that I can use these RAM cards for???

Any suggestions? Thank you for your time!

ukeee · 30th January 2004, 03:30 AM

I'm sure there are lots of interesting projects that you could do using RAM cards but they are all probably quite complicated. I'd like to try and do something like designing a very (very) basic motherboard from scratch. But obviously even a simple one would be very complicated. You can get some chips that will interface directly with RAM, I found a chip that you can use to record/play mp3, the music could be stored on several formats but it did use RAM.

Using them to store messages to play back on an LCD display would be cool. I don't know if you can use a PIC chip to interface with SDRAM the timings involved in SDRAM are quite involved (you have to do things like refreshing the memory) so you probably can't. But if you can that is probably the simplest. You could definately interface them with a microprosesor but that would probably be quite a complex project. I do remeber seeing a website where its members were doing something similar to this designng the whole board around an 8052 but it is a huge project.

Hope you find some use for your RAM

bmcculla · 30th January 2004, 07:23 PM

If you buy an FPGA you can make your own SDRAM controller that you can then connect to a micro of choice. OpenCores.org has an open source SDRAM controller if i remember correctly.

You could also buy a cheap motherboard/processor combo and build yourself an embedded x86.

Johnson777717 · 30th January 2004, 11:32 PM

Thanks folks! I appreciate you taking the time to respond. Now I know there is something that I can create with these. Again, thank you!

Dean Huster · 31st January 2004, 06:22 AM

I think that your life would be much simpler if you simply used static RAM with any project. The idea of screwing around with dynamic RAM with a PIC just doesn't make sense because all the added refresh electronics and timing problems as mentioned above. Why spend 9/10 of your project just on the RAM design when you could be spending it on something more productive? Besides, most PIC-based projects don't need hundreds of MB of RAM anyway.

Dean

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30th January 2004, 12:12 AM	#1
Johnson777717	128 MB RAM CARDS, paper weight? Hey folks! I have a couple 128 MB SDRAM cards that I don't use any more. ( I upgraded to more RAM, but I only have two bank slots). Thus, these SDRAM cards are collecting dust. Does anyone know of a circuit or interface that I can apply these to? I think it would be pretty cool to be able to interface this with a microcontroller or something, then add a LCD display and be able to store, call from memory. Possibly store digital media, or SOMETHING. Basicly anything that I can use these RAM cards for??? Any suggestions? Thank you for your time!

30th January 2004, 03:30 AM	#2
ukeee	I'm sure there are lots of interesting projects that you could do using RAM cards but they are all probably quite complicated. I'd like to try and do something like designing a very (very) basic motherboard from scratch. But obviously even a simple one would be very complicated. You can get some chips that will interface directly with RAM, I found a chip that you can use to record/play mp3, the music could be stored on several formats but it did use RAM. Using them to store messages to play back on an LCD display would be cool. I don't know if you can use a PIC chip to interface with SDRAM the timings involved in SDRAM are quite involved (you have to do things like refreshing the memory) so you probably can't. But if you can that is probably the simplest. You could definately interface them with a microprosesor but that would probably be quite a complex project. I do remeber seeing a website where its members were doing something similar to this designng the whole board around an 8052 but it is a huge project. Hope you find some use for your RAM __________________ ElectronicProjects.org - Electronic Project resource - Free projects, circuits and articles.

30th January 2004, 07:23 PM	#3
bmcculla	If you buy an FPGA you can make your own SDRAM controller that you can then connect to a micro of choice. OpenCores.org has an open source SDRAM controller if i remember correctly. You could also buy a cheap motherboard/processor combo and build yourself an embedded x86.

30th January 2004, 11:32 PM	#4
Johnson777717	Thanks folks! I appreciate you taking the time to respond. Now I know there is something that I can create with these. Again, thank you!

31st January 2004, 06:22 AM	#5
Dean Huster	I think that your life would be much simpler if you simply used static RAM with any project. The idea of screwing around with dynamic RAM with a PIC just doesn't make sense because all the added refresh electronics and timing problems as mentioned above. Why spend 9/10 of your project just on the RAM design when you could be spending it on something more productive? Besides, most PIC-based projects don't need hundreds of MB of RAM anyway. Dean __________________ Dean Huster, Electronics Curmudgeon Contributing Editor emeritus, "Q & A", of the former "Poptronics" magazine (formerly "Popular Electronics" and "Electronics Now" magazines). R.I.P.