© 2008 Microchip Technology Inc.

DS22087B-page 9

SERIAL MEMORY PRODUCTS

USER’S GUIDE

Chapter 2. Using the Memory Starter Kit

This chapter describes the Memory Starter Kit functionality and how to:

• Connect the board to the PC

• Select a Device, Write and Read

• Use the Endurance Utility

• Change the Voltage and SPI Mode

2.1

CONNECT THE BOARD TO THE PC

To run the Memory Starter Kit take these basic steps:

1.

Power up the starter kit by connecting the board to the USB port of a computer.

You should briefly see a pop-up balloon in the system tray (lower right of desktop)

that states (1) new hardware has been found, (2) drivers are being installed, and

(3) new hardware is ready for use. If you do not see these messages and then

the Memory Starter Kit does not work, try reconnecting the USB.

2.

Start the MPLAB program and select the Memory Starter Kit from the “Tools”

pull-down menu. You should then see “Memory Starter Kit connected” in the

output window.

2.2

SELECT A DEVICE, WRITE AND READ

Once you have the board connected, select a device:

• Go to the Configure tool bar and the Select Device window will open. Select

“SEExxx” from the Device Family pull-down menu if it is not already selected.

• Next, Select the memory device from the Devices menu.

• Now you are ready to use the Memory Starter Kit.

• Install the device into the 16-pin socket on the board. Be sure to place all

Microwire devices in the upper half of the socket, all other devices including SPI,

• Read or write to the device by using the Read and Write icons on the top of the

GUI. These buttons work in conjunction with the “Read/Write options” pull-downs

on the upper left. You can write a pattern or the buffer contents to the array. Select

Entire Device or Selected Range for either writing or reading. Check the pull-down

menus before reading or writing to get the desired operation.

2.3

USE THE ENDURANCE UTILITY

The Memory Starter Kit includes a utility that will allow you to test the endurance of any

of the serial memory products that Microchip offers. By clicking on the Endurance

button, you may select a user defined pattern or select from one of the patterns

provided. When writing you have the ability to continuously write, read in between

cycles, or even alternate data patterns. The endurance utility will automatically stop

whenever a failure occurs.