Memory Card Revisions

[cez]

The other day I was about to check a memory card I had recently got and noticed that it was somewhat heavier than the one I already had. Both are official Sega memory cards. So I opened them up and here are the results:

Both (Front) (http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb311/c_e_z/game/smem1.jpg)

Both (Back) (http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb311/c_e_z/game/smem4.jpg)

Close-up 1995 Memory Card (http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb311/c_e_z/game/smem2.jpg)

Close-up 1997 Memory Card (http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb311/c_e_z/game/smem3.jpg)

I have no clue about electronics but maybe someone can comment them.

[Jamtex]

Well the 1995 one has 4 x 1 Megabit (128K x 8) 5V Flash memory (1024 sectors with 128 bytes per sector) with a sega custom probably to make sure each chip gets the right data lines.

The 1997 has a single 4 Megabit (512K x 8) 5V Flash memory (2048 sectors with 256 bytes per sector) with some basic gating logic chips.

That seems to be it. I assume they changed it to save money (as 1 chip is going to be cheaper then 4 chips) and to bring production costs down.

[Calpis]

Do you have the RAM cards to scan? :D


I'm really amazed they made such a large ASIC to replace literally 16 logic gates (and a 2:4 decoder).

[madhatter256]

I'm guessing the memory card is a serial bus?

[Calpis]

Nope, it's 8-bit.