Questions about the current state of DDR SRAM (not DDR SDRAM).

[Eug]

Just wondering...

What is the state of SRAM these days, and where is it used? Nobody seems to use SRAM L3 caches on desktops anymore.

What is the fastest SRAM available? How does DDR SRAM compare in speed to the fastest DDR SDRAM? How much would a P4 3.0C benefit, if it already has dual channel DDR400 SDRAM?

I searched the FAQs but didn't find anything about it.

 

[Eug]

^

 

[Lord Evermore]

Nobody uses L3 cache on the motherboard because nobody did for desktop boards in the first place. Not until the CPUs came out with L2 integrated did the on-board cache become L3 simply by default, and that was only when using new processors on an old board. SRAM is expensive, and isn't of such higher speed that it's worth the cost over SDRAM at the speeds we use now, especially with the size of integrated L2 (1MB on Opteron).

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: Lord Evermore
Nobody uses L3 cache on the motherboard because nobody did for desktop boards in the first place. Not until the CPUs came out with L2 integrated did the on-board cache become L3 simply by default, and that was only when using new processors on an old board. SRAM is expensive, and isn't of such higher speed that it's worth the cost over SDRAM at the speeds we use now, especially with the size of integrated L2 (1MB on Opteron).

So who uses SRAM these days?

 

[Lord Evermore]

I dunno. Technically the cache on CPUs is still SRAM I believe. I think embedded/handheld devices are the only things that use it as any sort of primary memory because of the reduced power consumption, but even there flash memory is more used.