A designer can use two different static memory devices to construct a computer with a 16?bit CPU. Both memory chips can hold 222 bits. Suppose it is necessary to construct a computer with a 16?bit data bus and 128 MB of storage. The memory chip is available as 256K words of 16 bits or 4M words of 1 bit. Which arrangement would provide the most physically compact storage system? Hint: we are interested in the number of pins per chip.
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Both 256K × 16 bit and 4M × 1 bit chips have 222 bits of storage. In this case we need 128 MB (230 bits) of storage. The number of memory devices we require is 230/222 = 28 = 256. We can use 16 rows (16 in each) of 4M × 1 chips or a column of 256 256K × 16?bit chips.
However, a 4M × 1 chip has 22 address lines, 1 data, R/W, CS, and 2 power lines (minimum) = 27 pins
A 256K × 16?bit chip has 18 address lines, 16 data, R/W, CS, and 2 power lines (minimum) = 38 pins
Clearly, using 4M × 1 chips would lead to a much smaller (physically) system.
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