CPI Notes

Syllabus:- Memory: Memory, memory chips & modules, memory types, advanced
memory technologies, troubleshooting memory.
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Memory and Storage system:

The purpose of memory in the computer is to store data, instruction or information

permanently or temporary. The data, instruction or information may written into the

memory or read from the memory.

Types of Memory

A. Base on How long information can be stored into the memory there two types:

i. Volatile and ii. Non-volatile

i. Volatile Memory : The content of memory are erased when computer become power-

off.

Example : RAM (Random Access Memory),Cache etc.

ii. Non- Volatile : The content remains in the memory even computer is power-off.

Example : ROM(Read only Memory), Hard disk, Floppy Disk etc.

B. Based on access mechanism following are two types.

i. Primary memory and ii. secondary memory.

i. Primary memory :Primary storage, also known as main storage or memory, is the

main area in a computer in which data is stored for quick access by the computer's

processor. Example: RAM(Random Access Memory), ROM(Read Only

Memory) , Cache etc.

ii. Secondary Memory : Secondary memory or secondary storage(also known as

external memory or auxiliary storage), differs from primary storage in that it is not

directly accessible by the CPU. The computer usually uses its input/output

channels to access secondary storage and transfers the desired data using

intermediate area in primary storage. Secondary storage does not lose the data

when the device is powered down—it is non-volatile. It is less expensive than

primary storage and found in large capacity sucu as 80GB,160GB even 1000GB .

Example : Hard disk, USB flash drive, CD-ROM etc.

Fig 1 : Computer Memory Organisation

Cache Memory : It is primary and volatile memory of computer memory system which

reside between CPU and main memory. A cache used by the central processing unit

(CPU) of a computer to reduce the average time to access memory. The cache is a

smaller, faster memory which stores copies of the data from frequently used main

memory locations. Most CPUs have different independent caches, including instruction

and data caches, where the data cache is usually organized as a hierarchy of more cache

levels (L1, L2 etc.). Primary cache or level-1 L1 cache reside inside the CPU while

secondary or level L2 cache resides outside the cache .

When the processor needs to read from or write to a location in main memory, it

first checks whether a copy of that data is in the cache. If so, the processor immediately

reads from or writes to the cache, which is much faster than reading from or writing to

main memory. If the processor finds t data in the cache, a cache hit has occurred.

However, if the processor does not find the data in the cache, a cache miss has occurred.

Memory hierarchy and access time: There are three major level of memory in the

computer system ,These three level distinguished by response or access time is called

Memory hierarchy. Memory hierarchy can be represented by

Level-1 Processor Register and Cache memory - Fastest memory

Level-2 main memory - fast but slower than Level-1 memories

Level-3 Secondary memory – Slowest ,memories.

Access time of different level of memories

 CPU register and Cache < primary memory < Secondary memory

Memory Hierarchy:-
Memory hierarchy is just like the real world situation where -

1. a train fare is cheaper and it can carry a lot people at a time but it takes long time

2. the air fare of professional flights is more than the train, it can carry lesser number of

people but it is much faster than the train

3. the air fare for personal jet is further high, it can carry further lesser number of people

but it is fastest of the three.

So, depending upon the price and the urgency to reach destination, you will use

combination of these in different situations.

The memory hierarchy is exactly the same. Here, the situation is-

1. We need a lot of memory which is cheap and could be slow (secondary memory, Hard
Disk)
2. we also need some memory which could be smaller than secondary memory but
should be faster than it (primary memory, RAM)
3. we also need another kind of memory which could be smaller than the primary
memory but it should be much faster than it (cache memory).
That's why we need memory hierarchy.

The memory hierarchy in a computer is a set of "levels" of memory distinguished by the

speed at which they can be accessed. Typically, the hierarchy is, in order from fastest to
slowest:
- CPU registers
- Caches (L1, L2, etc. in that order)
- Main memory
- Tertiary memory
Understanding the memory hierarchy is important when writing code because it strongly
impacts the performance of the programs you write. Basically, you want the memory
your program accesses as high up the memory hierarchy as possible so the CPU can
access them as quickly as possible: accessing a register takes no cycles, but accessing
main memory on disk can take tens of millions of cycles. Consequently, designing your
programs to access their data from the higher levels of the memory hierarchy means
they'll run faster than programs pulling their data from lower levels.
 Computer Memory Types

PROM (Progammable Read-Only-Memory):

The content is determined by the vendor ROM, PROM sold empty and can then be filled
with a program by the user. Having completed the program, fill PROM can not be
removed.

EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read-Only-Memory):

Unlike the PROM, EPROM contents can be deleted after being programmed.
Elimination is done by using ultraviolet light.

EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only0Memory):

EEPROM can store data permanently, but its contents can still be erased electrically
through the program. One type EEPROM is Flash Memory. Flash Memory commonly
used in digital cameras, video game consoles, and the BIOS chip.
 SRAM VS DRAM

Memory Modules:-

In computing, a memory module is a printed circuit board on which memory integrated

circuits are mounted. Memory modules permit easy installation and replacement in

electronic systems, especially computers such as personal computers, workstations, and

servers. The first memory modules were proprietary designs that were specific to a

model of computer from a specific manufacturer. Later, memory modules were

standardized by organizations such as JEDEC and could be used in any system designed

to use them.

Types of memory module include:

 • SIMM, a single in-line memory module
• DIMM, dual in-line memory module

• Rambus memory modules are a subset of DIMMs, but are usually referred to as
RIMMs
• SO-DIMM, small outline DIMM, a smaller version of the DIMM, used in laptops

SIMM vs DIMM

Single In-line Memory modules and Dual In-line Memory Modules are basically just

different ways of packaging the same silicon memory. The primary difference between

these two types of modules is in the number of pins that they have. DIMMs have twice

as many pins compared to comparable SIMMs. This might not seem likely at first since

it is clearly visible that they have the same number of pins at each side, but closer

inspection reveals that the connectors on either side are connected to each other in

SIMMs. This is not the case with DIMMs.

The very apparent advantage of this is the much wider bus that a DIMM can utilize.
DIMMs have a 64bit compared to the 32bit bus used by SIMMSs Wider bus means
more data can pass through and this correlates to a faster overall performance since
memory is essential in all computer operations. Achieving a 64bit bus is not exclusive to
DIMMs since this capability has already been achieved with SIMMs via a neat little
trick. The trick is to use two SIMMs in tandem, the resulting bus would be the sum of
the two buses. The appearance of DIMMs have totally made this practice unnecessary.
DIMMs do not have backwards compatibility with SIMMs, therefore it is not possible to
slowly simply upgrade the memory modules. Moving from SIMMs to DIMMs required
a replacement of the motherboard which could sometimes mean the replacement of the
processor. This is why the change to DIMMs isn’t very quick, most people opted to
switch to DIMM when they needed to upgrade or replace their computers.
DIMMs have replaced all SIMMs in computers today and the only place that you would
probably see SIMMs would be at computer museums. DIMMs have become so
dominant that it is no longer necessary to identify whether the memory module is a
DIMM. There is no replacement to DIMMs at the moment and it is expected that
memory modules would still be manufactured as DIMMs in the foreseeable future.

Summary:
1. The SIMMs pins on either side are connected to each other while DIMM pins are
independent
2. DIMMs provide a 64 bitchannel which is twice of the 32bit channel of SIMMs
3. DIMMs eliminated the practice of pairing two SIMMs as one
4. DIMMs are not backwards compatible with SIMMs just like all other memory
modules
5. DIMMs are the replacement technology for SIMMs

DDR DDR1 DDR2 DDR3 DDR4

DDR RAM stands for "Double Data Rate Random Access Memory."

"Double Data Rate" means that it can fetch data on both the up and the down cycles of
the clock, unlike the previous versions of RAM which only fetched on one clock edge.

The original DDR RAM was, very simply, exactly like the old SD RAM but with the
speed at which it could transfer data doubled by transferring on both clock edges.

DDR2 RAM added a 2x clock multiplier to the module, which meant the bus clock
running at the same speed as DDR RAM would be doubled, thus multiplying transfer
speeds by 2 for the same bus speed.

DDR3 RAM replaces the 2x clock multiplier with a 4x clock multiplier, thus running at
4 times the memory transfer rate for the same bus speed as the original DDR RAM.

Additionally, DDR2 is capable of running at a lower voltage than DDR, and DDR3 is
again capable of running at a lower voltage than DDR2.

Update: Original question only asked about 1, 2 and 3, not 4. Finding details about
DDR4 that can succinctly describe the difference isn't a particularly simple task. What I
can find so far is that DDR4 runs on a lower voltage than DDR3, is capable of running
at a higher clock speed (typical DDR3 is 1600MHz for desktop, 1333 for laptop, while
typical DDR4 may be 1866 for laptop and 2133 for desktop), and can more easily come
in much more dense packages (DDR3 maxes out at 16GB/DIMM slot, DDR4 may end
up maxing out at 128GB/DIMM slot)