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DRAM Almost as Fast as SRAM

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the rammit-rammit-rammit dept.

An anonymous reader writes "IBM said it has been able to speed up the DRAM to the point where it's nearly as fast as SRAM, and that the result is a type of memory known as embedded DRAM, or eDRAM, that helps boost the performance of chips with multiple core calculating engines and is particularly suited for enabling the movement of graphics in gaming and other multimedia applications. DRAM will also continue to be used off the chip."

3 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. Trust IBM by Frequently_Asked_Ans · · Score: 5, Funny

    to go for title of most patents filed in 2007

    --
    "Stallman says add to this code and you are one of us. Gates says use this code and you belong to us."
  2. Re:To those wondering by TheRaven64 · · Score: 5, Informative
    To add to this:

    Cache misses are expensive. Really expensive. There are two ways of getting around this:

    1. More hardware contexts so that you can switch to another thread instantly when a cache miss happens.
    2. More (SRAM) cache.
    The first one is better if you have highly parallel software, but isn't so good for single-threaded applications. The second is the more common approach. While SRAM uses six transistors per bit, DRAM uses one transistor and one capacitor. This could give something around three times the density, allowing CPU manufacturers to triple the amount of cache without increasing die size. Bigger cache means fewer cache misses, which means less time spent doing nothing.

    For reference, a cache miss typically costs something around 1-200 cycles.

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  3. Yes, trust IBM. by mmell · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Because everybody knows that companies should invest millions of dollars to develop technologies which should then be given away for free. That's the only workable business model, right?

    No, I'm not a fan of patent trolls; but this isn't patent trolling. IBM has created a new, better way to embed cache RAM on the CPU die, at a signifigant cost in both manpower and materiel. This isn't like they patented "a method to check customers out with one click" or something similarly banal. This is a real, new technology which took a great deal of time, energy and work to create. No "prior art", no "trivially obvious" - this is exactly the kind of technological advancement which patents should protect.