Drop-in Replacement of old Flash IC "GD25Q20" in Tamagotchi Hardware

Semiconductor Integrated Circuits (ICs)
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Hello folks!

I am creating a custom piece of hardware, a replacement for an old physical Tamagotchi “DLC” (Tamagotchi Ps). The “DLC” uses an old Flash IC for storing the extra content, the GD25Q20B, which by now is obsolete (Datasheet).

I know for a fact that the W25Q20CLSNIG (available on Digikey) works as a drop-in replacement cause it was already done by someone else successfully!

Now since this particular IC is sold out seemingly everywhere from verified distributors, i looked into another modern alternative i could use and stumbled upon the GD25Q20CTIGR (Digikey).

This GD25Q20CTIGR looks reeaaally close to both the original old GD25Q20B and the known working replacement W25Q20CLSNIG, so i wonder if i missed something by thinking this could be another drop-in replacement :eyes:

I hope you can enlighten me!

Thank you in advance, have a great Day!

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Hello monoclock,

Welcome to the DigiKey TechForum.
The only difference I noticed, is the W25Q20CLSNIG-ND has a clock frequency of 104MHz, and the 1970-1004-1-ND (GD25Q20CTIGR) has a clock frequency of 120MHz.
You may have to try one to see how it works.

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Thank you for your input!

Your remark on the clock frequency made me check the Datasheet of the old original GD25Q20B again and i saw it also supported a clock frequency up to 120Mhz! So it may even be a more similar replacement than the one by winbond in this regard! I noticed even the Block sector architecture is identical!

Other than being a bit faster generally the newer GD IC seems to be really “just” an upgraded version of the old IC with some new security features on top.

I think I found a suitable replacement, i will try it :slight_smile:

Thanks again!