Hello everyone, in this video we're going to talk about one of the most

important parts of a computer and we're going to be talking about primary memory or
temporary storage, and this is called RAM. RAM stands for Random Access Memory. RAM
is stored on the motherboard in modules that are called DIMMs. DIMM stands for Dual
Inline Memory Module. A DIMM is a dual inline module because it has two
independent rows of these pins, one on each side. A DIMM memory module has either
168, 184, 240, or 288 pins.

And then the DIMM is installed on the motherboard in the memory slots. A
motherboard can have a various number of memory slots. The average motherboard
will have between 2 and 4 of them. In order for data or program to run on a
computer. It needs to be loaded into RAM first. So the data or program is first
stored on the hard drive, then from the hard drive, it's loaded into RAM And once
it's loaded into RAM, the CPU can now access the data or run the program. Now a lot
of times if the memory is too low it might not be able to hold all the data that
the CPU needs.

And when this happens, then some other data has to be kept on the slower
hard drive to compensate for the low memory. So instead of the data going from RAM
to the CPU, it has to do extra work by going back to the hard drive. And when this
happens, it slows down the computer. So to solve this problem all you need to do is
increase the amount of RAM on a computer and by increasing the memory, more data
can be loaded into the faster RAM without the need of constantly accessing the
slower hard drive.

And the result is a faster performing computer. So this is why a computer

with more RAM performs faster than a computer with less RAM. RAM requires constant
electrical power to store data. And if the power is turned off, then the data is
erased. RAM also comes in different types such as dynamic RAM or DRAM. DRAM is
memory that contains capacitors. A capacitor is like a small bucket that stores
electricity, and it's in these capacitors that holds the bit of information such as
a 1 or a 0. Because that's how computers read data, which is 1s or 0s

And because DRAM has capacitors, they have to be refreshed with

electricity constantly because capacitors do not hold a charge for very long, they
constantly leak. And this refreshing is where we get the name 'dynamic'. The
capacitors have to be dynamically refreshed often, otherwise they will forget the
information that they're holding. Another type of memory is called SDRAM which
stands for synchronous DRAM. And this type of memory is what is used today in RAM
DIMMs. SDRAM also has capacitors like DRAM, but the difference between

SDRAM and DRAM is basically speed. The older DRAM technology operates
Asynchronously with the system clock, which basically means that it runs slower
than the system clock. Because it's signals are not coordinated with it but SDRAM
runs in sync with the system clock. Which is why it is faster than DRAM. All the
signals are tied to the system clock for a better controlled timing. So as stated
before RAM is stored on the motherboard in modules that are called DIMMs and these
DIMMs come in different memory sizes. Today they range anywhere from

128 megabytes to 32 gigabytes per DIMM. SDRAM is also rated at different

speeds. But before we talk about the speed of RAM, we need to define some things
first. Now the term 64 or 32 bit data path, refers to the number of bits of data
that are transferred at a time or in one clock cycle. The more bits that are
transferred in one clock cycle, then the faster the computer will be. Now DIMMs
have a 64 bit data path. Which means that they can transfer 64 bits of data at a
time. Now prior to DIMMs there was an older RAM module called a SIMM. And SIMMs
had a
 32 bit data path. Which means they can transfer data 32 bits at a time.
So that's why DIMMs are faster than SIMMs, because they can transfer twice the
amount of data per clock cycle, because DIMMs transfers 64 bits of data at a time.
compared to SIMMs which transfer 32 bits of data at a time. Now a single bit, or
one bit of data, is the smallest form of data that the computer reads. Because in
the computing world, a computer only understands 1s and 0s, which is represented by
a single bit of data.

Now there is also the term byte. And 8 bits is equal to 1 byte. So if a
memory DIMM is rated to have a 64-bit data path, then that means that it has an 8
byte wide data path or bus. Because 64 divided by 8 = 8 SDRAM is rated at different
speeds. For example a stick of old SDRAM way back in the late 1990s could be
labeled PC-100. The 100 equals a maximum speed at which it operates, which is 100
MHz and Since SDRAM only comes in 64-bit modules, as we discussed earlier, it has
an 8 byte wide bus, because 64 divided by 8 = 8

So to figure out the total bandwidth of PC-100, you multiply 100 MHz x 8
bytes which equals 800 megabytes per second. So the total Bandwidth of PC-100
equals 800 megabytes per second. So in other words PC-100 RAM can transfer data at
a maximum rate of 800 megabytes per second. So an SDRAM module labeled PC-133, you
multiply 133 by 8 which = 1066. So the total bandwidth for PC-133 equals 1066
megabytes per second. Now technically 133 x 8 actually equals 1064 But 1066 is
accurate because the actual clock speed is

133.3333 x 8, which is rounded off to 1066 Another type of memory was

called RDRAM, which was developed by Rambus inc. And they developed the RIMM which
stands for Rambus inline memory module. RIMMs have 184 pins and looks similar to
DIMMs. With the exception that the bottom notches are located in the center of the
module. In 1999 RIMMs were breakthrough in the speed of memory, But has quickly
fallen behind due to the advancement of technology in DIMMs. When RDRAM debuted in
1999 it ran at 800 MHz which was considerably faster than

SDRAM which ran at 133 MHz at that time But even though it was a lot
faster than SDRAM, RDRAM only had a 2 byte wide bus, compared to SDRAM, which had
an 8 byte wide bus So if you multiply the speed of RDRAM, which was 800 MHz x the
bus width, which was 2 bytes, you would get a total bandwidth of 1600 megabytes per
second As technology increased and processor and bus speeds have gotten faster a
new RAM technology was developed to keep up with the faster speeds of computers.
This newer technology was called DDR,

which stands for double data rate, and that's basically what DDR does, it
sends double the amount of data in each clock cycle Compared to non DDR. Non DDR,
or single data rate RAM. Uses only the rising edge of the clock signal to transfer
data But DDR uses both the rising and falling edges of the clock signal to send
data. Which gives DDR the ability to send twice the amount of data So here is
another illustration comparing the difference between DDR and non DDR So even
though the system clock is pulsating at the same speed for both RAM modules,

the DDR RAM module can send twice the amount of data, since it takes
advantage of both the rising and falling edges of the clock signal. So even if we
speed the clock up and make it go faster, the DDR RAM will still send twice the
amount of data compared to the non DDR RAM. DDR ss also labeled differently than
non DDR RAM. DDR RAM may include both the clock speed and the total bandwidth in
its name. So instead of just including the clock speed in its name, like PC-133,
where 133 equals the clock speed.

DDR includes the total bandwidth also. So for example a DDR DIMM labeled
DDR-333 PC-2700 The 333 is the clock speed, and the 2700 is the actual total
bandwidth. so 333 MHz x 8 bytes = 2700 megabytes per second, which is where we get
the name PC-2700 A new technology that has succeeded DDR is DDR2 DDR2 is faster
than DDR because it allows for higher bus speeds and effectively send twice the
amount of data than DDR and it also uses less power than DDR A DDR2 DIMM has 240
pins compared to DDR, which has 184 pins.

DDR2 is labeled just like DDR. But with a small difference for example a
DDR2 DIMM could be labeled DDR2-800 PC2-6400 and the difference is the '2' right
after the DDR and the '2' right after the PC. So this is how you can identify DDR2
memory By using its label and right after DDR2 is DDR3 DDR3 is twice as fast as
DDR2 and it also uses less power than DDR2 and just Like DDR2 DDR3 also has 240
pins, but the notches in the DIMMs are in different places. So you can't put a DDR3
DIMM in a RAM slot made for a DDR2

in fact motherboards are made to support a certain type of memory so you

can't mix DDR 1, 2, 3, or 4 on the same motherboard An example of DDR3 would be
DDR3-1600 PC3-12800 And the fourth generation of DDR SDRAM is DDR4 DDR4 DIMMs have
288 pins, and like its predecessors, it also uses less power than the previous
generation of DDR DDR4 also offers a higher range of speed than DDR3 such as DDR4-
4266 PC4-34100 which has an incredible maximum bandwidth of 34,100 megabytes per
second Now sometimes there are circumstances where memory data corruption cannot be
tolerated

for example in servers servers are meant to be up and running at all

times and some servers cannot afford being offline for any reason. Such as servers
that control financial data, emergency medical data, or government data. These
servers cannot go down for any reason and that's why some RAM modules have ECC
which stands for error correcting code and what ECC does is that it detects if the
data was correctly processed by the memory module and makes a correction if it
needs to You can tell if a RAM module has

ECC by counting the number of memory chips on the module. In a standard

Non-ECC DIMM, it will have eight memory chips But in an ECC memory module it will
have nine memory chips Now most RAM modules today are non ECC and this is because
of the advance in technology that has minimized memory errors and Has made non ECC
RAM more stable. But as stated before ECC memory is mostly used in servers because
servers need to be up and running at all times and using ECC memory is just an
extra precaution to guard against any memory errors