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Rambus DRAM

Rambus DRAM (RDRAM) allows data transfer through a bus operating in a higher frequency range

than DDR SDRAM. In essence, Rambus moves small amounts of data very fast, whereas DDR SDRAM

moves large amounts of data more slowly. The Rambus design consists of three key elements:

RDRAMs, Rambus application-specific integrated circuits, and an interconnect called the Rambus

Channel. The Rambus design provides higher performance than traditional SDRAM because RDRAM

transfers data on both edges of a synchronous, high-speed clock pulse. RDRAM uses a separate row

and column command bus that allows multiple commands to be issued at the same time, thereby

increasing the bandwidth efficiency of the memory bus. This dual command bus is a unique feature of

RDRAM.

With only an 8-bit-wide command bus and an 18-bit data bus, RDRAM (Figure 17) has the lowest

signal count of all of the memory technologies. RDRAM incorporates a packet protocol and is capable

of operating at 800 MHz and providing a peak bandwidth of 2.4 GB/s. One packet of information

is transferred in 8 ticks of the clock, which allows sending128 bits of data in a 150-MHz clock

period. Since it requires 8 ticks of the clock to transfer a packet, the internal memory controller only

needs to run at a speed of 150 MHz to keep up with the packet transfer rate at 1.2 GHz. This allows

for plenty of timing margin in the design of the memory controller.

Figure 17. Rambus DRAM

RDRAM is capable of supporting up to 32 RDRAM devices on one memory channel while maintaining

a 1.2-GHz data rate. Through the use of a repeater chip, even more devices can be placed on one

RDRAM channel. The repeater will interface to two different RDRAM channels and pass the data and

command signals between them. One channel will communicate with the memory controller, and the

other channel will communicate with the RDRAM devices. Thus, the memory controller essentially will

be communicating only with the repeater chips. Up to eight repeater chips can be placed on the

memory controller, and 32 RDRAM devices can be placed on each channel. This allows one channel

to support a maximum of 256 devices. However, using the repeater chips will add 1 to 1.5 clocks of

additional delay.

To account for differences in distance of the devices on the channel, more latency in increments of the

clock can be added. This allows the memory controller to receive data from all devices in the same

amount of time, thus preventing data collision on the bus when consecutive reads are performed to

different devices.

Another feature of RDRAM that helps to increase the efficiency is an internal 128-bit write buffer. All

write data is placed into this buffer before being sent to the DRAM core. The write buffer reduces the

delay needed to turn around the internal data bus by allowing the sense amps to remain in the read

direction until data needs to be retired from the buffer to the core. Essentially, a read can immediately

follow a write with little bandwidth lost on the data bus.

While the RDRAM bus efficiency is high, the packet protocol increases the latency. The packet

translation between the internal memory controller bus and the fast external bus requires one to two

clocks of additional delay. This delay cannot be avoided when using a very fast packet protocol.