Making the Memory Interface Faster
Main memory technology is DRAM
- DRAM accesses are faster if sequential, block-structured accesses are made
- Work well for cache block fills
Most commonly used DRAM is Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM)
- Requires a clock, can transfer data at 100Mhz.
Newest memory interface is called RAMbus
- Adds deep pipelining, can transfer data at 800 Mhz (1.6 Gb/s bandwidth).
Key fact is that sequential, block structured accesses are currently rewarded.