Unlike parity memory, which uses a single bit to provide protection to eight bits, ECC uses larger groupings. Five ECC bits are needed to protect each eight-bit word, six for 16-bit words, seven for 32-bit words and eight for 64-bit … [Read more...]
Memory Upgrades
In recent times, as well as becoming much cheaper, RAM has also become more complicated. There are currently a proliferation of different varieties, shapes and voltages. The first step in planning an upgrade is therefore to determine what memory … [Read more...]
The Evolution of Memory
In the late 1990s, PC users have benefited from an extremely stable period in the evolution of memory architecture. Since the poorly organised transition from FPM to EDO there has been a gradual and orderly transition to Synchronous DRAM … [Read more...]
Flash Memory
Flash memory is a solid-state, non-volatile, rewritable memory that works like RAM and a hard-disk drive combined. It resembles conventional memory, coming in the form of discrete chips, modules, or memory cards such as those made by Memory Suppliers. Just like with DRAM and SRAM, bits of electronic … [Read more...]
Magnetic RAM
In late 2000 IBM and German semiconductor company Infineon Technologies AG announced plans to collaborate in the development of Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM) - a breakthrough memory technology that could significantly increase battery … [Read more...]
Dual Channel DDR Memory
The terminology dual-channel DDR is, in fact, a misnomer. The fact is there's no such thing as dual-channel DDR memory. What there are, however, are dual-channel platforms. When properly used, the term dual channel refers to a DDR motherboards … [Read more...]
DDR2 DRAM
The transition from DDR to DDR2 memory was more evolutionary than revolutionary, the DDR2 architecture being essentially the same as that of its predecessor, with a number of enhancements designed to provide greater bandwidth and other features that help reduce power … [Read more...]
DDR SDRAM explained
Double Data Rate DDR) SDRAM is the other competing memory technology battling to provide system builders with a high-performance alternative to Direct RDRAM. As in standard SDRAM, DDR SDRAM is tied to the system's FSB, the memory and bus executing instructions at the same time rather … [Read more...]
PC133 SDRAM
Although most of the industry agrees that Rambus is an inevitable stage in PC development, PC133 SDRAM is seen as a sensible evolutionary technology and one that confers a number of advantages that make it attractive to chip makers unsure of how … [Read more...]
SDRAM
The more recent Synchronous DRAM memory works quite differently from other memory types. It exploits the fact that most PC memory accesses are sequential and is designed to fetch all the bits in a burst as fast as possible. With SDRAM an … [Read more...]