- The smallest DIMM chip held 64 Megabytes of data, and the largest amount of information the chips can hold, in theory, is 16 Gigabytes, according to Wisegeek.com. The first such chips ran at 128 Mhz, and newer chips have an even faster cache. The pins came in 180 pin and 240 pin varieties.
- DIMM memory chips can use either synchronous dynamic random access memory chips (SDRAM) or double data rate chips (DDR) on each side of the card. DDR2 chips can be used in place of the original DDR chips. Each side of the memory stick will contain four to nine of these chips.
- DDR2 chips can reach clock speeds of 266MHz. Data transfer rates for DDR are double that of the earlier SDRAM chips.
- The space considerations of laptops mean that they typically use a different type of memory chips called SO-DIMM. SO-DIMM stands for small outline dual memory module, according to the Online Acronym Database. SO-DIMM chips are available SDRAM, DDR, and DDR2 memory sticks.
- Single Inline Memory Module (SIMM) Chips were used in Intel's 486 and earlier computers. These chips had a maximum capacity of 64 megabytes. The SIMM chips had 16 and 32 bit data channels. The DIMM chips that replace them used 64 bit channels for data transmission. (The term channel refers to the number of pins used to send the data across.)
- Placing these sticks in a computer is simple. Make sure the slots between the pins line up on the board in the computer and place them in until they click. DDR2 chips have been designed so they cannot be placed in the computer backwards. Users should be more careful with SDRAM models. Newer computers use DDR2 memory sticks.
