Addressing System Memory Challenges: Load-Reduced DIMMs
PC system performance improvements require advances in all subsystems: computation, storage and I/O (Input/Output). In particular, advances in processor technology must be supported by the system memory capabilities. This is an area that has been especially challenging over the past 10 years. While memory components have made significant advances in both capacity and bandwidth, the interface technology between the processor's memory controller and the memory components has lagged. It has not satisfied processor appetite for bandwidth and capacity, particularly in servers and workstations.
The next evolution of the memory interface — load-reduced Dual In-line Memory Modules (DIMMs) — could provide better platform scalability for servers and workstations through the life of the Double Data Rate 3 (DDR3) and DDR4 native interfaces.