1 DATA EEPROM EMULATION INTRODUCTION

Microchip Technology Inc. has expanded its product portfolio to include a wide variety of cost-effective PIC® Microcontrollers (MCUs) without an internal data EEPROM.

Many applications store nonvolatile information in the Flash program memory using table read and write operations. Applications that need to frequently update this data may have greater endurance requirements than the specified Flash endurance for the MCU/Digital Signal Controller (DSC) devices.

The alternate solution of using an external, serial EEPROM device may not be appropriate for cost-sensitive or pin-constrained applications.

This document presents another alternative that addresses these issues. This algorithm features an interface similar to an internal data EEPROM, which uses available program memory and can effectively improve endurance typically by a factor as high as 500 or more.