Trying to find suitable external SDRAM IC for i.MX RT1176 CrossOver MCU

[jacoblindberg]

I am trying to increase the RAM on the board that we are using. We are using the RT1176DVMAA crossover MCU and have 2 parallel Winbond 256Mbit SDRAM ICs currently hooked up. We are looking for much more RAM and need to change out the chip.

I was wondering, since the RT1176 uses the SEMC architecture for interfacing and controlling external SDRAM, would I be able to hook up DDR3 or DDR4 SDRAM chips to this micro instead? I want to avoid using a differential clock for the sake of simplicity AND i want to exhaust the maximum bus width allowable on the 1176, which is 32 bits. I dont mind having two memory ICs, like what we have now, that each have 16bit interfaces. I am looking for an easy replaceable solution that can get me at least 512MB, not Mb, worth of memory for my application purposes that directly interfaces with this micro? 

Any advice or help? GPT says that the SEMC on the RT1176 can only support up to DDR2, but I think its either hillucinating or simply doesnt have the right information. DDR2 is a pretty old technology and the RT1176 is a relatively new chip. I would imagine that the RT1176 can interface with newer, better, more available RAM architectures yes? 

Please feel free to offer up some alternative chips that would 100% be verified to work and be compatible with this micro:)

[Sam_Gao]

@jacoblindberg 

I checked with our IP designer, we don't support DDR3/4 with SEMC of i.MXRT1176 yet.

- There are two 256MB, 200MHz SDRAM (W9825G6KH-5I) on the EVK Board.

- SDRAM interface from RM:
• Supports 8/16/32 bit modes
• Supports 4 Chip Select (CS) and each CS up to 1024Mb

[jacoblindberg]

Sam,

This is actually the exact RAM chip that we are using and we wanted to get larger capacity but I cant seem to find any suitable replacement that gets us more RAM.

Could you or some of your engineers please kindly offer up some alternative RAM replacement ICs that get us larger capacity that exhaust the entire 32 bit bus width allowable on the RT1176?

It needs to be compatable with the SEMC for the RT1176, cant have a differential clock, and needs to get us at least 512Mbit of total capacity. Any suggestions?

- jake

[Sam_Gao]

Hi @jacoblindberg 

I double checked with the SDRAM owner of EVK, it seems that the maximum capacity of SDRAM we have verified on the RT EVK board is only 256Mbit.

- W9825G6KH-5I(Winbond) on RT1170 EVK

- IS42S16160J-6BLI(ISSI) on RT1060/1050 EVK

[jacoblindberg]

Sam 

The RT1176 EVK actually has 512 Mbit of SDRAM, achieved by connected two banks of these chips together to utilize the entire allowable 32 bit bus width of the RT1176.

I was asking if there are any other RAM IC's on the market that can expand our capacity past the 512 Mbit that both the EVK and our custom boards currently have that will work with the RT1176.

There are tens or thousands of alternative RAM chip options, I would just like for someone at NXP to offer up some suggestions that they have verified will work with our micro that can get us more capacity than the 512 Mbit that we have now. Please offer some suggestions.

- jake

[Sam_Gao]

Yes, What I mentioned is as below:

1.  we don't support DDR3/4 with SEMC of i.MXRT1176 yet.

2. Based on the SDRAM owner of EVK, it seems that the maximum capacity of SDRAM we have verified on the RT EVK board is only 256Mbit for each chip.

Now It is clear that we haven't verified the larger one yet, it is hard to give specific or detailed suggestions for me.

I appologize for the inconvenience.