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The Ultimate Memory Guide
A Closer Look
In this section you'll find more information on where memory comes from and
where it goes in the computer.
[ Back to the beginning... ]
Where memory comes from
As mentioned in the introduction, DRAM is the most common type of memory chip.
These chips are produced in very large, highly specialized fabrication plants.
From there, the chips go to memory module manufacturers (like Kingston) where
they're used to make different memory products. These products find their way
through various distribution channels to people who install them in computers.
Fabrication Memory Module Distributors/ End Users and
Plant Manufacturer Resellers Computers
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Where memory goes in the computer
For memory modules to do their job, they must be in direct communication with
the computer's CPU. It used to be that memory was always soldered directly
onto the computer's system board (also known as logic board or motherboard).
But as memory requirements increased, it became infeasible to solder all the
memory chips onto the system board.
This is how SIMMs and SIMM sockets became popular. The SIMM format offers a
flexible method of upgrading memory while using less space on the system
board.
. . . . . . . . . Horizontal DRAM configuration on a system board
Vertical DRAM configuration in SIMMs . . . . . . . . . . . .
Memory installed on a typical computer system board might look like this:
In this example, the system board has 4 megabytes of memory
soldered onto the system board. It also has four SIMM sockets
for memory expansion, two of which contain SIMMs.
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Memory banks and bank schemas
Computers have memory arranged in what are called memory banks. The number of
memory banks and their specific configurations vary from one computer to
another because they're determined by the computer's CPU and how it receives
information. The needs of the CPU determine the number of memory sockets
required in a bank.
While we can't look at every possible memory configuration, we can look at a
system for depicting memory configuration requirements called the bank schema.
A bank schema is a diagram of rows and columns that shows the number of memory
sockets in a system. This visual display is a theoretical bank layout and not
an actual system board layout; it is designed to help you quickly determine
the configuration requirements when adding memory modules. Kingston uses the
bank schema system to help customers easily understand the configuration rules
of various computer systems. The bank schema system appears in Kingston's
product documentation, which includes the Kingston Product Manual (a hard
copy reference) and an electronic reference system called KEPLER.
[ Table of Contents ]
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