RLDRAM 3 Memory; Building Tomorrow’s Network
Giga Om wrote an interesting article back in December on how much data America consumes. Based on UC San Diego’s research findings, it was reported that people in the U.S. accessed about 3.6 zettabytes of information in 2008 (that’s 3.6 billion trillion bytes). For some visual frame of reference, that’s about the same amount of information included in “thick paperback novels stacked seven feet high over the entire U.S.—including Alaska.” Staggering numbers, right? We’re gluttons for information—and the numbers only continue to grow year after year.
Of course, the UCSD study was counting all types of information consumption, not just what courses over our computer networks. But there’s no question that our consumption is shifting rapidly to traditional and cellular networks. We’re going to need significant advancements in network bandwidth and technology to keep pace with the impending explosion.
Micron’s newly announced third generation RLDRAM memory is a great example of this type of technology. RLDRAM 3 enables a faster, more efficient transfer of data over the network by doubling performance and cutting latency to sub 10 nanoseconds (that’s a fraction of DDR3’s latency). It may not be the sexy sort of technology that grabs lots of headlines, but it is an important key to helping networking OEMs meet tomorrow’s challenging infrastructure demands.
4 Comments to “RLDRAM 3 Memory; Building Tomorrow’s Network”
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I’m not familiar with this type of RAM. Could you explain with they use 18 or 36-bit buses?
Hi Alexandre,
Thanks for your comment. RLDRAM memory is a specialty DRAM we developed to meet the needs of high-bandwidth networking applications—it’s a great replacement for high-speed SRAM. RLDRAM 2 is offered in a 9, 18, and 36-bit data bus and RLDRAM 3 will be offered in an 18 and 36-bit bus. The extra bit per byte is used to support ECC.
I’d recommend reading our tech notes covering the RLDRAM 2 Design Guide and RLDRAM 2 Feature Set for more information. Our in-depth data sheets also offer a wealth of information. They can be downloaded by clicking on any individual part in the RLDRAM memory part catalog
Hey, I don’t really understand the difference between RLDRAM (2,3) and the DDR3…Next, if possible can you please tell me the difference between SRAMD AND DRAM tech (you talked above about it) and flash memory.
Hi Josh,
RLDRAM memory and DDR3 are both based on the standard DRAM array architecture…that is, each bit of data is stored in a capacitor and accessed through an associated transistor. RLDRAM memory is optimized for operation in which high sustainable bandwidth and deterministic performance is critical.
The highly deterministic performance of RLDRAM is achieved by very low random access delay (tRC), low data bus-turn around delay, simple command protocol, and large number of banks (16 banks in RL3). With the cost sensitive, commodity nature of DDR3, not as much can be done architecturally to define specs that allow for such high performance.
SRAM (static random access memory—not dynamic) uses a different structure that provides similar performance features. But unlike RLDRAM memory, SRAM has an inherently large cell size, which makes it relatively expensive and typically much lower density.
Here’s some more information on RLDRAM if you’re interested:
Exploring the RLDRAM 2 Feature Set
RLDRAM® Memory Flyer