techweb.com
RAM
Rambus
As processors have gotten faster, existing RAM technologies have remained relatively stable. We've seen the switchover from page mode to EDO to SDRAM, then to 100MHz SDRAM. But with processor clock speeds moving toward 500MHz, a significant gap remains between processor and RAM performance. Several new memory technologies seek to close this gap by increasing the chips' speed and widening the bandwidth with which they communicate with the processor. The players include double data rate RAM, or DDR RAM (also known as SDRAM II), SLDRAM, Direct RDRAM (aka Direct Rambus) and Concurrent RDRAM (aka Concurrent Rambus). Of these, Direct Rambus, endorsed by Intel, offers the greatest speed improvements, moving the peak bandwidth from SDRAM's 125MBps to an astounding 1.6GBps. Expect to see PCs with Direct Rambus memory later this year.
EDRAM
EDRAM, aka ESDRAM, is a memory scheme that boosts performance by adding cache directly onto the memory chip. Though a promising technology, it's not socket-compatible with existing SDRAM. Worse, it's expensive, and doesn't offer the dramatic improvement in throughput Direct Rambus offers. Don't expect to see EDRAM on your motherboard any time soon.
Fred Langa is senior consulting editor and columnist for WINDOWS Magazine. Contact Fred at his home page at langa.com, or care of the editor at the addresses on page 18.
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