Generations of SDRAM
SDR SDRAM (Single Data Rate SDRAM) can accept one command and transfer one word of data per clock cycle. Typical clock frequencies are 100 and 133 MHz. Chips are made with a variety of data bus sizes (most commonly 4, 8 or 16 bits), but chips are generally assembled into 168-pin DIMMs that read or write 64 (non-ECC) or 72 (ECC) bits at a time.
DDR SDRAM (Double Data Rate SDRAM), sometimes called DDR1: While the access latency of DRAM is fundamentally limited by the DRAM array, DRAM has very high potential bandwidth because each internal read is actually a row of many thousands of bits. To make more of this bandwidth available to users, a double data rate interface was developed. This uses the same commands, accepted once per cycle, but reads or writes two words of data per clock cycle. The DDR interface accomplishes this by reading and writing data on both the rising and falling edges of the clock signal. In addition, some minor changes to the SDR interface timing were made in hindsight, and the supply voltage was reduced from 3.3 to 2.5 V. As a result, DDR SDRAM is not backwards compatible with SDR SDRAM.
Typical DDR SDRAM clock rates are 133, 166 and 200 MHz (7.5, 6, and 5 ns/cycle), generally described as DDR-266, DDR-333 and DDR-400 (3.75, 3, and 2.5 ns per beat). Corresponding 184-pin DIMMS are known as PC-2100, PC-2700 and PC-3200. Performance up to DDR-550 (PC-4400) is available for a price.
DDR2 SDRAM is very similar to DDR SDRAM, but doubles the minimum read or write unit again, to 4 consecutive words. The bus protocol was also simplified to allow higher performance operation. (In particular, the "burst terminate" command is deleted.) This allows the bus rate of the SDRAM to be doubled without increasing the clock rate of internal RAM operations; instead, internal operations are performed in units 4 times as wide as SDRAM. Also, an extra bank address pin (BA2) was added to allow 8 banks on large RAM chips.
Typical DDR2 SDRAM clock rates are 200, 266, 333 or 400 MHz (periods of 5, 3.75, 3 and 2.5 ns), generally described as DDR2-400, DDR2-533, DDR2-667 and DDR2-800 (periods of 2.5, 1.875, 1.5 and 1.25 ns). Corresponding 240-pin DIMMS are known as PC2-3200 through PC2-6400. DDR2 SDRAM is now available at a clock rate of 533 MHz generally described as DDR2-1066 and the corresponding DIMMS are known as PC2-8500 (also named PC2-8600 depending on the manufacturer). Performance up to DDR2-1250 (PC2-10000) is available for a price.
Note that because internal operations are at 1/2 the clock rate, DDR2-400 memory (internal clock rate 100 MHz) has somewhat higher latency than DDR-400 (internal clock rate 200 MHz(.
DDR3 SDRAM continues the trend, doubling the minimum read or write unit to 8 consecutive words. This allows another doubling of bandwidth and external bus rate without having to change the clock rate of internal operations, just the width. To maintain 800 M transfers/s (both edges of a 400 MHz clock), the internal RAM array has to perform 100 M fetches per second.
Again, with every doubling, the downside is the increased latency. As with all DDR SDRAM generations, commands are still restricted to one clock edge and command latencies are given in terms of clock cycles, which are half the speed of the usually quoted transfer rate (a CAS latency of 8 with DDR3-800 is 8/(400 MHz) = 20 ns, exactly the same latency of CAS2 on PC100 SDR SDRAM).
DDR3 memory chips are being made commercially, and computer systems are available that use them as of the second half of 2007. Initial clock rates were 400 and 533 MHz, which are described as DDR3-800 and DDR3-1066 (PC3-6400 and PC3-8500 modules), but 667 and 800 MHz, described as DDR3-1333 and DDR3-1600 (PC3-10600 and PC3-12800 modules) are now common. Performance up to DDR3-2200 is available for a price.
DDR4 SDRAM will be the successor to DDR3 SDRAM. It was revealed at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, 2008, and is currently in the design state and is expected to be released in 2012.
