Random Access Memory

| Posted: 22-05-2007 | Comments: 0 | Views: 57 | Rating: (59)

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Random access memory (commonly known as RAM or as simply Memory) is writeable as well as readable data storage used in computers and also in other electronic instruments. It is integrated circuits that allow the stored data to be quickly and randomly accessed at and without any physical movement of the storage medium or reading head in a constant trme. It connects to Motherboard via one of Socket Integration. Most types of RAM lose their data when the computer powers down. Computers use RAM to hold the program code and data during computation. RAM is also known as 'main memory' or primary storage. A smaller amount of static random-access memory is also integrated with the CPU, but this is usually referred to as "cache" memory, rather than RAM.

The word "random" refers to the fact that any piece of data can be accessed randomly, quickly, and in a constant time, regardless of its physical location and whether or not it is related to the previous piece of data. It is not serial access or sequential access memory like CD-ROM or megnatic tape etc.

There are various types of memoryTypes:

SDRAM (synchronous dynamic random access memory) which is a type of solid state computer memory.
DDR SDRAM double-data-rate synchronous dynamic random access memory is a class of memory. Effectively, it nearly doubles the transfer rate without increasing the frequency of the front side bus. Thus a 100 MHz DDR system has an effective clock rate of 200 MHz when compared to equivalent SDR SDRAM.
RDRAM or DRDRAM Direct Rambus DRAM or DRDRAM (sometimes just called Rambus DRAM or RDRAM) is a type of synchronous dynamic RAM, designed by the Rambus Corporation.
DDR2 SDRAM or double-data-rate two synchronous dynamic random access memory is a random access memory technology used for high speed storage of the working data of a computer or other digital electronic device. Its primary benefit is the ability to run its bus at twice the speed of the memory cells it contains, thus enabling faster bus speeds and higher peak throughputs than earlier technologies. This is achieved at the cost of higher latency.
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DDR3 RAM double-data-rate three synchronous dynamic random access memory is the name of the new DDR memory standard that has been developed. The power consumption reduction is 40% as compared to current commercial DDR2 modules, due to DDR3's 90 nm fabrication technology using "Dual-gate" transistors to reduce leakage of current. DDR3's prefetch buffer width is 8 bit, whereas DDR2's is 4 bit, and DDR's is 2 bit. Theoretically, these modules could transfer data at the effective clockrate of 800-1600MHz to date, such bandwidth requirements have been mainly on the graphics market, where fast transfer of information between framebuffers is required. While the DDR3 specification will be available in mid-2007. Supposedly, Intel has preliminarily announced that they expect to be able to offer support for it in mid 2007 with a version of their upcoming Bearlake chipset. AMD's roadmap indicates their own adoption of DDR3 to come in 2008.

Major Manufacturers: Mushkin Samsung Micron Technology Corsair Memory Kingston Technology Rambus Technologies and Others.

The average computer, as of 2006, could hold up to 2 gigabytes of RAM, which is generally considered more than enough to sustain both intensive multi-tasking as well as heavy graphics applications.

Capacity measurement:
The most common measurements of RAM capacity are 210 (1,024) or kilo bits, bytes or words of binary memory because 1,024 is close to 1,000. Similarly, mega and giga are used to represent 220 and 230, respectively. Thus a megabyte of RAM is almost always 1,048,576 bytes, not a million. In 1999, new prefixes, kibi, mebi and gibi, were introduced to unambiguously represent binary quantities, which is yet to catch up.

Several kinds of stable RAM are being development using the carbon nanotubes and the magnetic tunnel effect technologies. Data will preserve in these RAM while power shut down. These we see in the form of flash memory (pen drives). Capacities for these will now exceed 150 gigabytes with speeds far exceeding traditional RAM. This development will smudge the definition between traditional random access memory and disks, and will dramatically reducing the performance diffrence.

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Random Access Memory

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