Silicon ChipDynamic RAMs are getting bigger & cheaper - December 1989 SILICON CHIP
  1. Outer Front Cover
  2. Contents
  3. Publisher's Letter: Dynamic RAMs are getting bigger & cheaper
  4. Subscriptions
  5. Feature: Install A Clock Card In Your Computer by Leo Simpson
  6. Vintage Radio: Scrounging bits and pieces by John Hill
  7. Feature: Remote Control by Bob Young
  8. Project: Digital Voice Recorder Board by John Clarke
  9. Serviceman's Log: Knowing when to draw the line by The TV Serviceman
  10. Project: Easy To Build UHF Remote Switch by Greg Swain
  11. Back Issues
  12. Feature: Computer Bits by Jennifer Bonnitcha
  13. Project: Balanced Input/Output Stages by John Clarke
  14. Feature: The Evolution Of Electric Railways by Bryan Maher
  15. Feature: Amateur Radio by Garry Cratt, VK2YBX
  16. Feature: The Way I See It by Neville Williams
  17. Feature: The LM831 Low Voltage Audio Amplifier by Darren Yates
  18. Ask Silicon Chip
  19. Feature: Index to Volume 2: Jan-Dec 1989
  20. Market Centre
  21. Advertising Index
  22. Outer Back Cover

This is only a preview of the December 1989 issue of Silicon Chip.

You can view 62 of the 120 pages in the full issue, including the advertisments.

For full access, purchase the issue for $10.00 or subscribe for access to the latest issues.

Articles in this series:
  • Remote Control (October 1989)
  • Remote Control (November 1989)
  • Remote Control (December 1989)
  • Remote Control (January 1990)
  • Remote Control (February 1990)
  • Remote Control (March 1990)
  • Remote Control (April 1990)
  • Remote Control (May 1990)
  • Remote Control (June 1990)
  • Remote Control (August 1990)
  • Remote Control (September 1990)
  • Remote Control (October 1990)
  • Remote Control (November 1990)
  • Remote Control (December 1990)
  • Remote Control (April 1991)
  • Remote Control (July 1991)
  • Remote Control (August 1991)
  • Remote Control (October 1991)
  • Remote Control (April 1992)
  • Remote Control (April 1993)
  • Remote Control (November 1993)
  • Remote Control (December 1993)
  • Remote Control (January 1994)
  • Remote Control (June 1994)
  • Remote Control (January 1995)
  • Remote Control (April 1995)
  • Remote Control (May 1995)
  • Remote Control (July 1995)
  • Remote Control (November 1995)
  • Remote Control (December 1995)
Items relevant to "Computer Bits":
  • Model Railway Receiver/Decoder Module PCB patterns (PDF download) [09105981/2] (Free)
  • Model Railway Command Control PCB patterns (PDF download) [09102981/09103981] (Free)
Articles in this series:
  • Computer Bits (December 1989)
  • Command Control For Model Railways; Pt.1 (January 1998)
  • Command Control For Model Railways; Pt.2 (February 1998)
  • Command Control For Model Railways; Pt.3 (March 1998)
  • Command Control For Model Railways; Pt.4 (May 1998)
  • Command Control For Model Railways; Pt.5 (June 1998)
Articles in this series:
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (November 1987)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (December 1987)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (January 1988)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (February 1988)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (March 1988)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (April 1988)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (May 1988)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (June 1988)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (July 1988)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (August 1988)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (September 1988)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (October 1988)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (November 1988)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (December 1988)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (January 1989)
  • The Evolution Of Electric Railways (February 1989)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (March 1989)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (April 1989)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (May 1989)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (June 1989)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (July 1989)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (August 1989)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (September 1989)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (October 1989)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (November 1989)
  • The Evolution Of Electric Railways (December 1989)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (January 1990)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (February 1990)
  • The Evolution of Electric Railways (March 1990)
Articles in this series:
  • Amateur Radio (November 1987)
  • Amateur Radio (December 1987)
  • Amateur Radio (February 1988)
  • Amateur Radio (March 1988)
  • Amateur Radio (April 1988)
  • Amateur Radio (May 1988)
  • Amateur Radio (June 1988)
  • Amateur Radio (July 1988)
  • Amateur Radio (August 1988)
  • Amateur Radio (September 1988)
  • Amateur Radio (October 1988)
  • Amateur Radio (November 1988)
  • Amateur Radio (December 1988)
  • Amateur Radio (January 1989)
  • Amateur Radio (April 1989)
  • Amateur Radio (May 1989)
  • Amateur Radio (June 1989)
  • Amateur Radio (July 1989)
  • Amateur Radio (August 1989)
  • Amateur Radio (September 1989)
  • Amateur Radio (October 1989)
  • Amateur Radio (November 1989)
  • Amateur Radio (December 1989)
  • Amateur Radio (February 1990)
  • Amateur Radio (March 1990)
  • Amateur Radio (April 1990)
  • Amateur Radio (May 1990)
  • Amateur Radio (June 1990)
  • Amateur Radio (July 1990)
  • The "Tube" vs. The Microchip (August 1990)
  • Amateur Radio (September 1990)
  • Amateur Radio (October 1990)
  • Amateur Radio (November 1990)
  • Amateur Radio (December 1990)
  • Amateur Radio (January 1991)
  • Amateur Radio (February 1991)
  • Amateur Radio (March 1991)
  • Amateur Radio (April 1991)
  • Amateur Radio (May 1991)
  • Amateur Radio (June 1991)
  • Amateur Radio (July 1991)
  • Amateur Radio (August 1991)
  • Amateur Radio (September 1991)
  • Amateur Radio (October 1991)
  • Amateur Radio (November 1991)
  • Amateur Radio (January 1992)
  • Amateur Radio (February 1992)
  • Amateur Radio (March 1992)
  • Amateur Radio (July 1992)
  • Amateur Radio (August 1992)
  • Amateur Radio (September 1992)
  • Amateur Radio (October 1992)
  • Amateur Radio (November 1992)
  • Amateur Radio (January 1993)
  • Amateur Radio (March 1993)
  • Amateur Radio (May 1993)
  • Amateur Radio (June 1993)
  • Amateur Radio (July 1993)
  • Amateur Radio (August 1993)
  • Amateur Radio (September 1993)
  • Amateur Radio (October 1993)
  • Amateur Radio (December 1993)
  • Amateur Radio (February 1994)
  • Amateur Radio (March 1994)
  • Amateur Radio (May 1994)
  • Amateur Radio (June 1994)
  • Amateur Radio (September 1994)
  • Amateur Radio (December 1994)
  • Amateur Radio (January 1995)
  • CB Radio Can Now Transmit Data (March 2001)
  • What's On Offer In "Walkie Talkies" (March 2001)
  • Stressless Wireless (October 2004)
  • “Degen” Synthesised HF Communications Receiver (January 2007)
  • WiNRADiO: Marrying A Radio Receiver To A PC (January 2007)
  • PICAXE-08M 433MHz Data Transceiver (October 2008)
  • Half-Duplex With HopeRF’s HM-TR UHF Transceivers (April 2009)
  • Dorji 433MHz Wireless Data Modules (January 2012)
Articles in this series:
  • The Way I See It (November 1987)
  • The Way I See It (December 1987)
  • The Way I See It (January 1988)
  • The Way I See It (February 1988)
  • The Way I See It (March 1988)
  • The Way I See It (April 1988)
  • The Way I See It (May 1988)
  • The Way I See It (June 1988)
  • The Way I See it (July 1988)
  • The Way I See It (August 1988)
  • The Way I See It (September 1988)
  • The Way I See It (October 1988)
  • The Way I See It (November 1988)
  • The Way I See It (December 1988)
  • The Way I See It (January 1989)
  • The Way I See It (February 1989)
  • The Way I See It (March 1989)
  • The Way I See It (April 1989)
  • The Way I See It (May 1989)
  • The Way I See It (June 1989)
  • The Way I See It (July 1989)
  • The Way I See It (August 1989)
  • The Way I See It (September 1989)
  • The Way I See It (October 1989)
  • The Way I See It (November 1989)
  • The Way I See It (December 1989)
SILICON CHIP Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Leo Simpson , B.Bus. Editor Greg Swain, B.Sc.(Hons.) Technical Staff John Clarke , B.E.(Elec.) Robert Flynn Advertising Manager Paul Buchtmann (02) 982 9553 Regular Contributors Neville Williams, FIREE, VK2XV Bryan Maher, M.E. B.Sc. Jim Yalden, VK2YGY Garry Cratt, VK2YBX Jim Lawler, MTETIA John Hill Jennifer Bonnitcha, B.A. Photography Bob Donaldson Editorial Advisory Panel Philip Watson , MIREE , VK2ZPW Norman Marks Steve Payor, B.Sc. , B.E. SILICON CHIP is published 1 2 times a year by Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd. All material copyright (c). No part of the contents of this publication may be reproduced without prior written consent of the publisher. Kitset suppliers may not photostat articles without written permission of the publisher. Typesetting/makeup: Magazine Printers Pty Ltd, Rozelle , NSW 2039. Printing: Macquarie Publications Pty Ltd, Dubbo , NSW 2830. Distribution: Network Distribution Company. Subscription rates: currently $42 per year (12 issues) inside Australia. For overseas rates, refer to the subscription page in this issue. Liability: Devices or circuits described in SILICON CHIP may be covered by patents . SILICON CHIP disclaims any liability for the infringement of such patents by the manufacturing or selling of any such equipment. Address all mail to: Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd, PO Box 139, Collaroy Beach , NSW 2097. Phone (02) 982 3935. Fax (02) 982 9553. ISSN 1 030-2662 2 SILICON CHIP PUBLISHER'S LE't·tER Dynamic RAMs are getting bigger & cheaper Welcome to the December 1989 issue of SILICON CHIP. What do think of the cover photo on this issue? It is intended to be whimsical while highlighting the great strides that are being made in the production of random access memory for personal computers. The unit pictured in the girl's hands is actually a normal sized 18-pin chip which we have blown up somewhat to emphasise its enormous capacity which is 4 megabits. Made by Fujitsu, it is the latest dynamic RAM to use that company's 3-dimensional "stacked capacitor cell" (3D STC) which is crucial to achieving really large capacity. Now I don't know about you but I find dynamic RAM chips about as exciting as a pile of dead batteries. They don't have a lot of charisma do they? Even a really significant development such as a 4 megabit DRAM fails to grab me. Yes, I know that 4 megabits is a humongous amount of storage and it uses extremely fast refresh times (56ns) and ultra tiny chip geometry. Nevertheless, I have to acknowledge that without the developments of the last few years in RAM technology, our computers would be a lot more expensive, a lot slower and a whole lot less capable. And memory chips would be very expensive. Two articles this month actually emphasise how cheap memory chips have become. The first is a project which should interest many readers, even if they have not the slightest interest in computers. The digital voice board does not use a computer but does use 4256 memory chips which are now, well, as cheap as chips, considering their capacity. It will have many applications which will have little to do with computers. The second article related to DRAMs is Jennifer Bonnitcha's "Computer Bits" column which is devoted this month to adding more memory to your computer. If you want more memory, now is a good time to add it because memory chips are presently pretty cheap. But if you are turned off by our apparent emphasis on memory chips have no fear. We won't let them take over the magazine. We will continue to present articles to appeal to the widest possible readership. On the other hand, since dynamic RAM chips are being made in such huge numbers and in such huge capacities, we can hardly ignore them, can we? And since it will shortly be the festive season, I and the staff of SILICON CHIP magazine wish you a happy and safe Christmas. Thank you for your support over the last two years. You can look forward to even bigger things from SILICON CHIP next year. Leo Simpson