What is a modern substitute for venerable EPROMs?

You can still get parallel EEPROMS. This one is 32Kx8, 5V supply, and with 150nS access. Very similar to an EPROM.

http://www.microchip.com/wwwproducts/en/AT28C256

Have a look around their memory section to see what else they've got.

Hello,

How about FRAM? Something like this: http://www.cypress.com/file/41731/download

Best Regards,

Rachael

For storing firmware, flash memory is pretty much the modern equivalent of the EPROM.  Most micro controllers include on-board flash memory of at least 32k up to 1M or more. 

Ok, thanks. I will look into this. This is exactly what I am looking for, but... that FRAM recommendation looks awfully tempting. :-)

I was thinking more EEPROM, but I admit that I had not considered this option. Looking at some preliminary information, I see that these components have an SPI interface, so it might be feasible to build a programmer.

While EEPROM was more on my mind, it seems that building a programmer might be more complicated.

Truth be told, I ca test both technologies and see which one I like best,

Thanks for the input!

PS: I think that the correct answer is both FRAM and EEPROM, but I can only mark one post as "correct" bummer!

Thanks David!

For this particular project I am moving away from microcontrollers, hence the quest for an external nonvolatile memory component. However, I do have Yet Another Project that is shelved at the moment that will be using a microcontroller and I will be needing at least 64KB non volatile memory (internal to the uC). Could you reference a specific line or family of uControllers that have this internal flash memory? Thanks! Sgarciav

Salvador Garcia wrote:

 

I do have Yet Another Project that is shelved at the moment that will be using a microcontroller and I will be needing at least 64KB non volatile memory (internal to the uC). Could you reference a specific line or family of uControllers that have this internal flash memory? Thanks! Sgarciav

I like the STM32 parts from STMicroelectronics.  They have a broad line of ARM Cortex parts with a wide range of price, performance, and power consumption.  I've been programming the STM32F103C8 MCU which STM32 Discovery boards use as their ST-Link programming/debug processor.  It has ARM Cortex-M3, 64KB Flash, 20KB SRAM, and a full-speed USB device interface along with the usual GPIOs, SPI, UARTs, etc.  Very nice MCU.  Good documentation, except for the USB section which badly needs rewriting.

I've never used ST's software -- I've done all development using FLOSS (Free-as-in-Liberty Open Source Software) tools over SWD ("Single Wire" Debug).  So far, ST and ARM documentation have been complete enough to allow this.

There are other MCU vendors with similar capabilities.  I'll let their fans make their own comments.

I have personal experience with the Texas Instruments MSP430 line of micro controllers.  They have a wide range of parts with varying peripheral sets, amounts of internal flash, and amounts of internal SRAM.  However, there are many other vendors and product families that have internal flash.  It just depends are what your requirements are.

The TI MSP430FR5x and MSP430FR6x MCUs have up to 128KB of internal FRAM.

CY8CKIT-044 PSoC 4 M-Series Pioneer Kit has 1Mbit of FRAM.