White Paper: F-RAM vs. BBSRAM: Functional and System Design Comparisons
Zero in on the design differences between F-RAM and BBSRAM as well as their relative ecological, financial and performance influences.
Parallel F-RAM Product Information Guide
Discover design considerations, product comparisons, applications, and features of Parallel F-RAM.
Streaming Video Webcasts
Take a deeper dive in understanding the functional and system differences between BBSRAM and F-RAM. (Duration 30 Minutes)
Battery-free Advantages in Telecommunications
F-RAM’s unique characteristics make it particularly suitable to replace BBSRAM sockets in a wide variety of mission-critical telecommunication applications such as bridges, routers, and telecom switches.
Most telecommunication and networking equipment have a serial “console port,” through which initial configuration is done. Additional configuration may be performed via a network-based remote login or via the serial console.
BBSRAM is commonly used in the equipment for permanent storage of the system configuration scripts, patches, and logs that are writeable, which:
- Implements configuration changes saved since the router module was last reset.
- Incorporates permanent storage of hardware revision and identification information, and also Media Access Control (MAC) addresses for LAN interfaces.
BBSRAM is a standard volatile SRAM with additional circuitry and packaging. When external power is removed, the device switches to battery power to maintain stored data. While SRAMs can be made nonvolatile by attaching them to large batteries, those BBSRAM subsystems are not truly nonvolatile since the battery has a finite life. Also these subsystems can fail in the case of mishap – accidents, leakage, etc.
In today’s mission-critical equipment, the battery is required to last the life of the equipment under the specified operating environmental conditions. It is not field replaceable in some cases. With more system complexities, the demand for higher battery capacity has risen. BBSRAM is becoming an increasingly limiting option for designers due to size, reliability, and cost competitiveness.
In contrast, F-RAM offers:
- Fast, random access of SRAM providing a one-tenth form factor
- Battery-free maintenance
- Minimum points of failure versus any other nonvolatile memories
- A less expensive solution to BBSRAM
Being bogged down by a battery is not the most sustainable choice – for the environment or your bottom line. Choose Ramtron’s parallel F-RAM memory for your next system design.
