Adios, DDR3: Micron Says Its DDR4 DRAM Modules Are Coming In 2013

carwiz said:

Why should this eliminate prefetch.

Because the memory could possibly be faster than the processor for one. The processor would issue a read and the next step has the data. L1, L2 and L3 cache is the processor's "prefetch" memory.

I think you're confusing processor cache with disk (OS) to memory prefetch buffering. Mostly my fault but I thought we were talking about memory technology. Disk prefetch would still be needed and still remain the bottleneck.

But then wouldn't the processor end up taking more time to look up the address of the data, since it has to figure out where in the entire gigabytes of RAM the important bits are?

pparks1 said:

But I just future proofed by buying 1TB of DDR3 RAM, and now this!!!. I give up.

Great sig, Patrick.

FuturDreamz said:

carwiz said:

Why should this eliminate prefetch.

Because the memory could possibly be faster than the processor for one. The processor would issue a read and the next step has the data. L1, L2 and L3 cache is the processor's "prefetch" memory.

I think you're confusing processor cache with disk (OS) to memory prefetch buffering. Mostly my fault but I thought we were talking about memory technology. Disk prefetch would still be needed and still remain the bottleneck.

But then wouldn't the processor end up taking more time to look up the address of the data, since it has to figure out where in the entire gigabytes of RAM the important bits are?

Not necessarily. With ultra-fast memory, the processor would just read the address and the memory controller would present the data. It's that fast! As it is now, the processor has to search through up to four levels of various memory types. The image below-left shows how it is now. Purely conceptual, but on the right would be the new memory configuration. Imagine, if you can, 196+GB of memory that would be 1000 times faster than current L1 cache. (L1 cache is already faster than DRAM but much smaller--On the order of a few MB of on-die memory.)

A Guy said:

Cheaper DDR3 as well, for those who don't have to be on the bleeding edge

A Guy

Same here. With my checking account balance, I have to be satisfied with being on the blunt edge.

pparks1 said:

But I just future proofed by buying 1TB of DDR3 RAM, and now this!!!. I give up.

Did I just read this correctly, 1 whole TERABYTE of DDR3 RAM?!

I'm kind of excited for this, but at the same time, meh....

DDR4 in my eyes is like going from DDR2 to DDR3, lower latencies and faster speeds with lower voltages. DDR3 is pretty fine as it is, especially since it's dirt cheap too! This will only affect Windows slates and laptops, servers, and such, not so much desktops. Even then, overclocking DDR3 RAM is really only beneficial if your processor is able to process data swiftly enough for RAM to be operating at 1600MHz. To me, it's better to have more RAM than faster RAM, that's the trade off I make.