Re: SRAM vs Flash-RAM

William Ofosu-Amaah (XI6W-OFSA@asahi-net.or.jp)
Thu, 6 Jun 1996 21:44:05 +0900

At 12:01 PM 6/5/96 -0400, GWSteve@aol.com wrote:
>The reason why Flash cards are not recommended for the OmniGo 100 is that
>they demand a significant electrical charge to initialize. There's
> actually a driver on the OmniGo that supports many Flash cards,

Thanks for this info! I have been trying to found out if an ATA
Flash Card driver was already on the OG and you just answered that
with a yes :-)

According to a message posted here from MagicRam a while back, the
current required by their 40MB Intel-style Linear Flash card
for the OG is:

"Standby 100 micro A
Read 40mA
Write 40mA"

Typical ATA Flash cards have about the following current
requirements:

Read 60mA
Write 120mA

>There are some new low-power Flash cards being introduced to the
>marketplace now that may work around the power issue.

I have seen some TDK Low Power Flash cards (4MB, 12MB)
with the following approx. current requirements:

Read 30mA
Write 45mA

I have also checked out Epson ATA Compact (mini) Flash cards
(4, 10, 15MB) and at 5.0 Volts they have the following power
ratings:

Sleep Less than 1mA
Read 75mA MAX
Write 90mA MAX

Maybe it is time to give one of the Low Power Flash cards a try.

I thought I also had current ratings but I can't seem to
locate them :-( Does anyone have typical power ratings for
SRAM cards for comparison?

Thanks

William