Custom Design of a PC/104 Peripheral - TS-NVRAM2

This project began when a customer needed non-volatile memory with fast write times. The project resulted in the creation of a PC/104 peripheral that both met the requirements of the customer and added a COTS product to our product line.

The customer was developing an embedded system requiring non-volatile storage in the 2MB range. Their project was a data logging application anticipated to have a large number of write cycles. Write speed was also an issue.

One alternative to the storage requirement was Compact Flash. Compact Flash was dismissed as an alternative due to inherent problems. For example:

• Write times are slow
• There are a limited number of write cycles
• The physical attachment is not vibration tolerant

While discussing the project with one of our engineers, a peripheral was defined based
on SDRAM. The new device has:

• Battery Backup, converts the SDRAM to non-volatile RAM
• Battery life calculated to be 10 years
• SDRAM with fast read/write cycles
• An infinite number of write cycles
• PC104 attachment which is vibration tolerant

The engineers discussed the design with Marketing and a decision was made to add the product to our COTS product line as a complement to our 128KB PC104 Non-volatile RAM board (TS-NVRAM). By adding this peripheral to our standard product line, the customer only paid for development time and not the cost of manufacturing start up.

The customer was very pleased with the results of this collaborative effort and Technologic Systems gained a valuable new Commercial Off the Shelf product, the TS-NVRAM2 Non-Volatile Memory Board.