PC Hardware in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Chapter 5. Memory

A few
years ago, this book could have covered memory in a page or two. All
memory came as discrete chips, and there were only a few sizes and
speeds available. You bought however many chips you needed, installed
them, and that was that.

Dramatic CPU speed increases over the last few years have brought
designers up against one hard fact. It's difficult
to design faster CPUs, but it's even harder to build
faster memory. Building

affordable fast memory
is harder still. Faster processors require faster memory, so
engineers have come up with various methods to increase memory
speeds. One result is that memory isn't a simple
issue anymore. This chapter tells you what you need to know to make
good decisions about buying memory when you build or upgrade a
system.