I'm trying to understand what my options are when it comes to interfacing memory to 8051. Am I correct that:
- interfacing DRAM is complex (for a beginner)
- interfacing SRAM is more straightforward and is really the only practical memory type for fast, random access at the byte level (e.g. stack, heap)
- interfacing FlashRAM is also straightforward but writing is more complex than just moving a byte to an address
- various forms of serial memory use lowest count of I/O pins but are really,really slow.
So, as a novice, do I have any options other than SRAM if I want a large external heap and stack?
Also, how does the SRAM access time spec relate to the 8051 timing on port 0 and 2? In one machine cycle P0 puts out low addr and then reads/writes data. Does that mean I need to use SRAM with an access time of less than 1/6 of a machine cycle?
Thanks, Andrew