External Memory Interface Handbook Volume 2: Design Guidelines: For UniPHY-based Device Families

ID 683385
Date 3/06/2023
Public
Document Table of Contents

9.11.1. Multiple Chip Select Configuration Effects

A DIMM contains one or several RAM chips on a small PCB with pins that connect it to another system such as a motherboard or router.

Nonregistered (unbuffered) DIMMs (or UDIMMs) connect address and control buses directly from the module interface to the DRAM on the module.

Registered DIMMs (RDIMMs) and load-reduced DIMMs (LRDIMMs) improve signal integrity (and hence potential clock rates and/or overall memory size) by electrically buffering address and command signals as well as the data bus (for LRDIMMs) at a cost of additional latency. Both RDIMMs and LRDIMMs use parity on the address and command bus for increased robustness.

Multiple chip select configurations allow for one set of data pins (and address pins for UDIMMs) to be connected to two or more memory ranks. Multiple chip select configurations have a number of effects on the timing analysis including the intersymbol interference (ISI) effects, board effects, and calibration effects.