Memory and Storage

- Sheetal Gosrani

Overview

Memory Hierarchy

RAM

Memory Chip Organization

ROM

Flash Memory

Memory Hierarchy
Increasing performance
and
increasing cost

Slow and
inexpensive

Memory Hierarchy (contd)

Registers

top in the hierarchy

matched in speed to the CPU

but are large and consume significant power

number of registers in a processor are small

Secondary and off-line storage devices

at the bottom of the hierarchy

cost per stored bit small in terms of money and

power

but access time is very long compared to

registers

Random Access Memory(RAM)

The term random means any memory location

can be accessed in the same amount of time
regardless of its position in the memory.

Volatile memory

Types of RAM:

SRAM

DRAM

Static RAM

Static RAM (SRAM) based on flip flops

Contents of each location persist as long as
power is applied.

Fast but relatively large

Consume a lot of power

Used for memory applications that are small but

fast

Dynamic RAM

Dynamic RAM (DRAM) employ capacitors

Capacitor stores electric charge whose level
represents a 1 or 0
Capacitors dissipate with time and hence the
charge must be restored frequently
DRAMs
smaller, slower than SRAMs
support low cost, low power and high density and
hence used in main memory

Memory Chip organization

RAM chip

A0 Am-1 : Address lines from 0 to m-1

CS : Chip Select (CS = 0, chip selected)

WR : ReadWrite (WR = 0, write operation)

RAM Grid

RAM Grid

During read operation:

Entire row is selected

It is fed into the column MUX

MUX selects a single bit for output

During write operation:

Single bit to be written is distributed by the DEMUX

to the target column

Row decoder selects the proper column to be

written

Read Only Memory(ROM)

Data stored in these chips is nonvolatile -- it is

not lost when power is turned off.
On turn on, the computer loads BIOS from ROM
Data stored in these chips is either
unchangeable or requires a special operation to
change
Applications: Videogames, calculators,
microwave oven, etc

Read Only Memory(ROM) (contd)

Lets see the circuit for a ROM that stores four

four-bit words(0101, 1011, 1110, 0000)
PROM burner allows contents of the ROM to be
overwritten only once
EPROMs could be written several times
EEPROMs allow the content to be rewritten
electrically

Flash Memory

A section of memory cells can be erased in a

single step, or 'flash', thus the name
Nonvolatile memory
Flash memory is used for easy and fast
information storage in such devices as digital
cameras, mobile, video game consoles

References

Textbook: Computer Organization and

Architecture
Wiki pages

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_storage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_random_acces
s_memory

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/ram.htm
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/computermemory1.htm

Thank you