Quick question about EEPROMS. Sorry if is kind a dumb question, but it seems Google has the multiple websites that just spit out the same info as the last one (AI at it's finest I guess).

Most of them seem to run a page architecture. What I am not clear about is if you need to fill the page buffer each time or can I simply write until I reach the location I want or even just write to the location I want? For example, if the page is 16 bytes, do I need to write in 16 byte chunks until I get the address I want? Or, for bigger EEPROMs that are 64 byte pages, do I need to access everything in 64 byte chunks? Even if it is a 64 byte page, can you write a specific address with in that 64 byte page? If not, then does that mean I would need to read the memory sector I want (in it's 64 byte format), then mask the bits I need to change, then send all 64 bytes back? Or, is all of this really just chip dependent?

 

See the device datasheet. I think it is device dependent.
Some devices might have byte write and others might have page write only.

https://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/doc0270.pdf

https://www.st.com/resource/en/appl...om-memory-architecture-stmicroelectronics.pdf

 

Most of them seem to run a page architecture.

The original, smaller parallel EEPROMs didn't support page writes. That came at around the 32Kb or 64Kb size.

What I am not clear about is if you need to fill the page buffer each time or can I simply write until I reach the location I want or even just write to the location I want?

Atmel devices allowed the bytes in a page to be written in any order.

Even if it is a 64 byte page, can you write a specific address with in that 64 byte page?

Likely. Check the datasheet for the device in question.

Or, is all of this really just chip dependent?

STM 64Kb devices don't appear to have a page write mode.

 

You can write any number of consecutive bytes up to the page size. As soon as the IIC_STOP is sent or the CS pin is negated the IC goes into a write cycle and stores the data you have written to the memory. It will take at least 5 ms to do that, during which time you can't do anything else.
If you try to write two non-consecutive addresses, it will go into the write cycle after you have written the first one, and you will be locked out for 5ms (or whatever the write cycle is)
You can read any address any time except when it is doing a write cycle.