Microchip Technology, Inc. introduces its family of 8 and 32 KB stand-alone serial SRAM devices which increase a system's available RAM memory by adding small, inexpensive external devices. The 23A640 and 23K640 (23X640), and 23A256 and 23K256 (23X256) devices feature an industry-standard SPI interface. These devices provide a way for designers to add more RAM to their application while keeping the same MCU, or using a smaller one if replacing parallel external RAM with serial RAM. They feature a bus speed of 20 MHz for fast access, and low operating and standby currents said to help extend battery life. Available in 8-pin packages, they only use 4 MCU pins, compared with 16 to 24 pins for parallel RAM.