Echelon Mini FX - Manual (Page 16)

Mini FX User's Guide 3
• Backwards compatibility for device applications.
Improved Memory Architecture
The Series 5000 chips have a new memory architecture that speeds up the CPU
operation and lowers development and device costs. The Series 5000 chips have internal
on-chip memory that includes 16 KB of ROM to store the Neuron firmware image and 64
KB of RAM (44 KB is available for application code and data). The Series 5000 chips use
external serial memory (EEPROM or flash) to store your application code, configuration
data, and an upgradable Neuron firmware image (the Series 5000 chips have no
user-accessible on-chip non-volatile memory). The external serial EEPROM and flash
memory devices communicate with Neuron 5000 Core via a serial peripheral interface
bus (SPI) or Inter-Integrated Circuit (I 2 C) interface. EEPROM devices can use either the
SPI or I 2 C interfaces; flash devices must use the SPI interface.
When a device is reset, the application code and configuration data are copied from the
external non-volatile memory into the internal on-chip RAM, and the device application
is then executed. The Series 5000 chips require at least 2KB of off-chip EEPROM to
store configuration data, and you can use a larger capacity EEPROM device or an
additional flash device (up to 64 KB) to store your application code and an upgradable
Neuron firmware image.
The Series 5000 chips also include a new interrupt processor that handles
user-programmable interrupts, which improves chip performance.
Note: Many types of EEPROM devices are supported; however, Echelon currently
supports and provides drivers for three external flash devices: Atmel AT25F512AN,
STM25P05, and SST25VF512A. You can configure the external non-volatile memory
used by a device in the Hardware Template Editor. For more information on using the
Hardware Template Editor, see Chapter 3.
Figure 1.1 illustrates the architecture of the Series 5000 chips. For more information on
the memory architecture of the Series 5000 chips, see the Series 5000 Chip Data Book.