Created for
CMSC 411 (Fall, 1998)
University of MD, College Park

Permission is granted for academic, non-profit redistribution.

A Consumer's Guide to Modern Computer RAM

There's a lot of stuff out there on RAM.  In fact, another group of former students put together a really good technical guide to Hennessy and Patterson's RAM chapter.  So why, do you ask, would we choose to tackle this topic?  Well, we'd like to make this whole RAM thing seem a little more real. 

Ever gone out to buy a PC and had to decide whether you needed EDO or non-EDO DRAM?   SIMMs or DIMMs?  Asynchronous, pipeline-burst, writeback flowthru, non-blocking... well, you get the idea.

Our goal was to make an "all-in-one" guide to modern RAM, catching all the buzzwords we could and passing their meanings on to you, the informed consumer.  No longer can you be manipulated by those "modern day used car salesmen" (as the good doctor likes to call PC vendors).  Additionally, we'll even throw in a little of the more interesting H&P stuff that isn't in the other RAM guide, just for kicks.   H&P-style study questions are included at the end of each section.

So sit back, hold on tight, and select your category!

| System RAM | Cache | Virtual RAM | Specialty RAM | Past and Future |

- This page created for CMSC 411, Fall 1998 -
Authored by Brian Renn, Neil Anstey, Jason Martin, and Eric Byrd