Possibility of introducing external RAM using SD cards

Peitian Pan

Other Parts Discussed in Thread: EK-TM4C1294XL

Hi everyone!

I'm trying to port ucLinux to EK-TM4C1294XL, but the on board RAM and flash is far too small so I guess external RAM is necessary. I only have some SD cards at hand and no SDRAM memory modules are currently available. My question is, is it possible to use SD cards as external RAM on TM4C1294XL?

Thank you!

over 9 years ago

0 Robert Adsett72 over 9 years ago

Guru 10570 points

It would be rather slow and I don't think there are any RAM based SD cards. The biggest issue though, might be all of the memory swapping routines you'd have to write and get called at the appropriate times

Robert

0 Amit Ashara over 9 years ago

TI__Guru**** 244400 points

Hello Peitian,

Adding to what Robert said: SD Card will not be memory mapped for variable access. I would suggest referring to the reference design. Easy to construct and with software available.

www.ti.com/.../TIDM-TM4C129SDRAMNVM

Regards
Amit

0 Peitian Pan over 9 years ago in reply to Robert Adsett72

Prodigy 30 points

Thank you! I think I'd better use an SDRAM module instead.

0 Peitian Pan over 9 years ago in reply to Amit Ashara

Prodigy 30 points

Thank you for that information on SDRAM! I think it is better to turn to SDRAM or simply use a board with enough memory...

0 Amit Ashara over 9 years ago in reply to Peitian Pan

TI__Guru**** 244400 points

Hello Peitian,

Indeed. However the EMAC does not have access to external SDRAM, hence relocating connectivity code to SDRAM would not work.

Regards
Amit

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Possibility of introducing external RAM using SD cards