
DS1213B
031998 2/6
OPERATION
The DS1213B SmartSocket performs five circuit func-
tions required to battery back up a CMOS memory. The
first function involves switching between the battery and
the V
CC
supply, depending on which is greater. The
switch has a voltage drop of less than 0.2 volts.
The second function is power–fail detection. The
DS1213B constantly monitors the V
CC
supply. When
V
CC
falls below 4.75 volts, a precision comparator de-
tects the condition and inhibits the RAM chip enable.
The third function, write protection, is accomplished by
holding the RAM chip enable signal to within 0.2 volts of
V
CC
or the battery supply whichever is greater. If the
incoming chip enable signal is active at the time power
fail detection occurs, write protection is delayed until af-
ter the current memory cycle is complete to avoid cor-
ruption of data. Power fail detection occurs in the range
of 4.75 to 4.5 volts. During nominal power supply condi-
tions the chip enable signal will be passed through from
the socket pin to the socket contact with a maximum
propagation delay of 20 ns.
The fourth function the DS1213B performs is to check
battery status to warn of potential data loss. Each time
that V
CC
power is restored to the SmartSocket the bat-
tery voltage is checked with a precision comparator. If
the battery supply is less than 2.0 volts, the second
memory access to the SmartSocket is inhibited. Battery
status can, therefore, be determined by a three–step
process. First, a read cycle is performed to any location
in the memory, in order to save the contents of that loca-
tion. A subsequent write cycle can then be executed to
the same memory location, altering the data. If the next
read cycle fails to verify the written data, then the battery
voltage is less than 2.0V and data is in danger of being
corrupted.
The fifth function the SmartSocket provides is battery
redundancy. In many applications, data integrity is par-
amount. In these applications it is desirable to use two
batteries to ensure reliability. The DS1213B Smart-
Socket provides two batteries and an internal isolation
switch to select between them. During battery back up,
the battery with the highest voltage is selected for use. If
one battery fails, the other automatically takes over. The
switch between batteries is transparent to the user. A
battery status warning will occur if both batteries are
less than 2.0 volts. Each of the two internal lithium cells
has a 45 mAh capacity.
NOTE: As shipped from Dallas Semiconductor, battery
voltage cannot be measured on the V
CC
socket contact.
Only after V
CC
has been applied to the device for the
first time and then removed will the battery voltage be
present on socket contacts 28, 26 and 20.