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180 CHAPTER 5 / INTERNAL MEMORY

MCEL85 McEliece, R. “The Reliability of Computer Memories.” Scientific American,
January 1985.
PRIN97 Prince, B. Semiconductor Memories. New York:Wiley, 1997.
PRIN02 Prince, B. Emerging Memories:Technologies and Trends. Norwell, MA: Kluwer,
2002.
SHAR97 Sharma,A. Semiconductor Memories:Technology,Testing, and Reliability. New
York: IEEE Press, 1997.
SHAR03 Sharma, A. Advanced Semiconductor Memories: Architectures, Designs, and
Applications. New York: IEEE Press, 2003.

Recommended Web sites:
• The RAM Guide: Good overview of RAM technology plus a number of useful links
• RDRAM: Another useful site for RDRAM information

5.5 KEY TERMS, REVIEW QUESTIONS,AND PROBLEMS

Key Terms

cache DRAM (CDRAM) hard failure single-error-correcting,
dynamic RAM (DRAM) nonvolatile memory double-error-detecting
electrically erasable program- programmable ROM (SEC-DED) code
mable ROM (EEPROM) (PROM) soft error
erasable programmable ROM RamBus DRAM (RDRAM) static RAM (SRAM)
(EPROM) read-mostly memory synchronous DRAM
error correcting code (ECC) read-only memory (ROM) (SDRAM)
error correction semiconductor memory syndrome
flash memory single-error-correcting (SEC) volatile memory
Hamming code code

Review Questions
5.1 What are the key properties of semiconductor memory?
5.2 What are two senses in which the term random-access memory is used?
5.3 What is the difference between DRAM and SRAM in terms of application?
5.4 What is the difference between DRAM and SRAM in terms of characteristics such as
speed, size, and cost?
5.5 Explain why one type of RAM is considered to be analog and the other digital.
5.6 What are some applications for ROM?
5.7 What are the differences among EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memory?
5.8 Explain the function of each pin in Figure 5.4b.