Memory question

[mathrocks]

Hi, how do you go about figuring out how many memory chips are needed to design a memory unit that contains 64k 8 bit words and each memory chip is 4096x4?

Thanks

[chroot]

Well, each of your 4k x 4 chips provides 4k addresses. You need 64k addresses, so you're going to need 16 of those chips just to get enough addresses. Futhermore, each chip only provides 4 bits per address, and you need 8 bits per address, so you'll need two chips per address. Thus, you'll need 16 * 2 = 32 chips.

- Warren