Definition During the last two decades, there has been an exponential growth in the
operational speed of microprocessors. Also RAM capacities have been improving
at more than fifty percent per year. However the speed and access time of the
memory have been improving at slower rate. In order to keep up in performance
and reliability with processor technology it is necessary to make considerable
improvements in the memory access time.
The
Rambus founders emerged with a memory technology-RD RAM. RDRAM memory provides
the highest bandwidth -2.1GB/sec. per pin- from the fewest pins at five-times
the speed of industry available DRAM. The RDRAM memory channel achieves its high-speed
operation through several innovative techniques including separate control and
address buses, highly efficient protocol, low voltage signaling, and precise clocking
to minimize skew between clock and data lines. A single RDRAM device is capable
of transferring data at 1066Mb/sec. per-pin to Rambus-compatible ICs. Data rate
per-pin will increase beyond 1066Mb/sec per pin in the future.