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Increasing a Cell Phones INTERNAL Memory: Is it possible?

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KynloStephen66515:
I put this question to my fellow DC members:

Is it POSSIBLE (albeit goddamn hard work) to increase the INTERNAL memory of a cell phone?

Im not talking about upgrading from an 8GB to a 16GB micro-sd card, I'm talking, its literal internal memory.

If you know its possible, would anybody be willing to share with me how to do it?

It would make for an interesting hardware project  :D


11/11/11
Lest We Forget


They shall grow not old

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

From Laurence Binyon's poem For the Fallen, written in September 1914

mahesh2k:
I dunno but superuser.com users can spam on that question for sure.  :P

Stoic Joker:
While the physical part of changing the memory chip shouldn't be that hard (depending of ones soldering skills and equipment availability). I think the main question should be, Will the phones system architecture allow it to access/utilize the extra memory if it is added? Because if the answer to that question is no...there ain't much point in cracking the thing open.

Renegade:
While the physical part of changing the memory chip shouldn't be that hard (depending of ones soldering skills and equipment availability). I think the main question should be, Will the phones system architecture allow it to access/utilize the extra memory if it is added? Because if the answer to that question is no...there ain't much point in cracking the thing open.
-Stoic Joker (November 11, 2011, 06:49 AM)
--- End quote ---

Stoic is right. No. You can't. (Usually.)

First, the kind of chips you need aren't generally available. The kind of memory you need to look at is measured in Mb or Gb, and not in MB or GB. We're talking about individual chips and not banks of them.

But if you do have them, then you into different problems.

Parts of the firmware are compiled for specific memory.

Remember, different memory uses different voltages, with newer memory using less and less. So you'd also have power issues to worry about. You don't want to put 1.8 V through memory that needs 1.35 V.

However, it's a case-by-case basis and depends on your specific device. In general, no you can't.

However, if your phone has something like eMMC in it, then you can relatively easily. eMMC has a single point for the interface and insulates application designers from the specific memory type. This is the wave of the future for mobile memory and you'll see more and more of it. moviMMC and other stuff is coming as well, which will allow the same kinds of things.

In short, if you need to ask the question, don't even think about trying. Unless you have a phone to burn and don't care if you destroy it, then by all means, have some fun and experiment! :D

Ath:
Most modern phones are use SOC's (System On a Chip) baked into a single chip-casing. It's quite difficult to open that up, solder in the extra chips if you could get them (you can't), and then close it all firmly. The only phones that aren't built like that are quite old phones these days (~5+ years)

And that's besides the (software) facts Renegade and SJ already mentioned.

The next thing you'd want is to over-clock it to get some extra speed out of it.


Cheapest option is to buy the best phone you can afford, at the time you can't postpone the buy any longer. ;)

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