My understanding is that RAMTRON _HAS_ licensed some other companies to
manufacture their product line, as a second source. But not all products
will be second-sourced.

But in my code, I allow other devices (including Microchip's) to be
useable; they'll just be slower (delayed by the write time). The read time
is the same, but R/W are limited.
When I MUST use something other than FRAM, I write the data THREE TIMES,
then extract the data as "best two of three", i.e. use the packet that is
identical twice. It allows the use of EEPROM when a FRAM should be used.
For example, suppose the data saved is '0123456789', which is written
identically three times. Assume that due to data cell breakdown I read back
'000' (3 of 3, OK) '011' (2 of 3, OK), '222' and so on. When I find a
difference between the first 2, I check the third. If ALL 3 are different,
I post an error and ask the user to call a technician.

--Bob

At 04:57 PM 8/25/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>FYI only:
>
>Maybe this may help someone who is interfacing PICmicros with nonvolatile
>memory:
>
>I'm sure many of you use some sort of nonvolatile memory with PICs -- there
>is a good article written by Christopher Leddy related to the subject of
>this post at www.embedded.com:
>
>More specifically:
>http://www.embedded.com/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=HPZ0HKC3MPPKWQSNDBCCKH0
>CJUMEYJVN?articleID=13100883
>
>Embedded Systems Programming also had a good article about this subject in
>their magazine somewhere around 1997 to 2000, I'll try to remember to post
>the title if I can find it.
>
>Very good reading when trying to deal with good 'ol Mr. Murphy!
>
>Side note:
>As fans of FRAM devices from Ramtron (www.ramtron) have already pointed out,
>FRAM write times are an order of a magnitude less than the typical write
>times of standard serial EEPROMs, which helps greatly in preventing
>corruption due to brownouts or power failures. I hope that Ramtron has a
>second source by now -- being a single source part was only thing that
>prevented me from using them at the time. Maybe things have changed since
>then...
>
>
>Take care,
>
>Ken Pergola
>
>
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: pic microcontroller discussion list
>[mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]On Behalf Of tim_webb@AGILENT.COM
>Sent: Monday, August 25, 2003 4:24 PM
>To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
>Subject: Re: [PIC:] WARNING: Dangerous PIF attachement in email from PIC
>l ist
>
>
>I have been getting about 150 emails a day from the virus and not one email
>was from anybody that I know.  And about once an hour, I get an email that
>appears like I sent it but it came back as undeliverable.  I checked my
>computer with the latest anti-virus and scanned all drives and no virus was
>detected.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Dave VanHorn [mailto:dvanhorn@CEDAR.NET]
>Sent: Monday, August 25, 2003 12:49 PM
>To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
>Subject: Re: [PIC:] WARNING: Dangerous PIF attachement in email from PIC
>list
>
>
> >
> >2. If Olin says he sees 4-5 a week it makes me wonder what his wonderful
> >system makes of the remaining 5-6 a DAY that should be going through it
> >(based on what others and I see).  It would be too good to hope that his
> >wonderful system just deletes them silently.
>
>I probably get 5-6 an hour, or thereabouts.
>I just delete them.
>There's a bunch of virii in my attachment directory, awaiting the big
>flush, but since I have no problem of disk space, and they're about as
>dangerous as a light grenade, I haven't gotten around to it recently.
>
>I did get virused ONCE, using eudora.  I clicked on the attachment.
>In my own defence, I was deathly ill with pancreatitis, and the morphine
>drip wasn't doing my critical thinking any good.
>
>--
>http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic:
>[PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads
>
>--
>http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic:
>[PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads
>
>--
>http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic:
>[PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads

--------------
Bob Axtell
PIC Hardware & Firmware Dev
Tucson, AZ
1-512-219-2363

--
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