High-speed memory architectures for multimedia applications

In order to meet the requirements for multimedia applications, several approaches to DRAM architecture have emerged. Instead of a single, common memory device, several advanced approaches, such as extended data out (EDO) DRAM, and synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) will each play a major role in the future memory market. Furthermore, advanced interface technologies, such as Rambus RAM (RDRAM), RamLink, and SyncLink are very promising for future-generation memory. Also, application-specific memory, such as cache DRAM (CDRAM), enhanced DRAM (EDRAM), and video DRAM (VRAM) offer unique characteristics to improve performance in particular applications. Since it is beneficial to understand which type of high-speed memory can improve the speed performance of a particular system most effectively, this article discusses the fundamental concepts of these recent high-speed performance memory architectures to aid in the selection of memories for multimedia applications.