Main memory technology

Two of the major factors affecting the efficiency of a computing system are the Data Transfer Rate between processor(s) and main memory and the Availability of Data in main memory as needed by the processor(s). The objective of this paper is to present some of the techniques employed in order to enhance the effectiveness of these factors. Both factors are dependent upon the cycle time of the main memory and the memory management system. Furthermore, in the case of multiprocessing environments, one other architectural feature of the main memory arrangement that becomes equally important to data transfer rates and availability is the concept of Modular Memory Organization where the memory is organized into a number of independent memory modules that can be accessed independently by individual processors.