What is RIMM?
| Rambus Inline Memory Module |
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RIMMs, from Rambus, Inc., Mountain View, CA, (See them at HTTP://WWW>RAMBUS.COM.) use a very different approach than Cached DRAM and Enhanced DRAM to increase speed. By concentrating on improvements to the memory bus, RDRAM is able to combine IC level improvements with a bus architecture that is optimized for the new DRAM design. Each Rambus chip has an onboard controller circuit that handles address decoding and page cache management. By combining these chips with the new Rambus Channel, byte-wide multiplexed bus, a memory system with a low access time and an extremely fast data transfer rate is created. It is important to note that this is a system level improvement, not just a component upgrade. The Direct RambusŪ high-speed memory interface enables the highest DRAM performance, 1.6Gb/sec/DRAM device. The technology spans multiple DRAM generations - from 32Mb to 1Gb densities. The Direct Rambus RIMM Module is a next-generation high-performance plug-in memory module for PC main memory. Developed in conjunction with Intel Corporation, Direct Rambus technology has the performance / cost ratio demanded by the high clock-rate microprocessors used in mainstream PCs started shipping in 1999. The RIMM module conforms to the standard DIMM form factor, but it is not pin-compatible. Its architecture is based on the electrical requirements of the Direct Rambus Channel, a high-speed bus operating at a clock rate of 400MHz which enables a data rate of 800MHz (data is clocked on both clock edges). A two byte-wide data channel is used resulting in a peak data transfer rate of 1.6 Gbytes per second. The bus uses transmission line characteristics to maintain high signal integrity. See RDRAM. |
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