SDRAM is a fast and powerful method of storing and accessing data, with a dense data package and pipelining capabilities. It aligns with the computer system bus and processor, and has evolved into DDR SDRAM for even more bandwidth. It first appeared in 1997 and quickly became dominant in the computing industry.
SDRAM stands for Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory and is a fast method of providing computing power. It can run at 133Mhz which is much faster than previous RAM technologies.
This type of memory is very protective of its data bits, storing each in a separate capacitor. The benefit of this is that it avoids corruption and keeps the data “pristine”. The downside is that those same capacitors that are so good at storing SDRAM bits are also very bad at keeping electrons in check; the result is where the dynamic part of the name comes into play, as updates are required to maintain data integrity. Once all the dynamic updating and archiving operations have finished, the result is a dense data packet, one of the densest in business.
The Synchronous part of the name is added with a subroutine that aligns with the computer system bus and processor, so that all operations occur at the same time. Specifically, the computer’s internal clock drives the entire mechanism. Once the clock sends a signal saying another unit of time has passed, the memory chips get to work. In addition to DRAM’s dense data package, it allows for a more complex memory model, resulting in an extremely powerful method of storing and accessing data.
Another benefit of SDRAM is what is called pipelining. Because the chips are so dense and complex, they can accept more than one write command at a time. This means that a chip can process one command while accepting another, even if that new command has to wait its turn in the pipeline. Earlier RAM chips required proprietary access, allowing only one command at a time throughout the chip. Thus, the chips are faster than their predecessors.
This mainly describes single data chips or SDR SDRAM. An even newer type of chip is double data rate, or DDR SDRAM. This allows for even more bandwidth by making pipeline data transfers twice for every unit of time supplied by the computer’s internal clock. One transfer occurs at the beginning of the new time unit and the other at the end.
SDRAM chips first appeared at the cutting edge of the computing industry in 1997. In just three years, they had become the dominant force in memory chips across the computing spectrum.
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