What Is the Meaning of Fully Buffered Memory?
Fully buffered memory is a technology found in certain workstation- and server-class computers manufactured in the late 2000s. Each fully buffered memory module has a microprocessor that facilitates communication to and from the motherboard's memory controller. This technology circumvented some of the limitations inherent in the DDR2-SDRAM memory technology common at the time.
Other People Are Reading
-
Increased Memory Capacity
-
Fully buffered memory resolves a physical limitation that makes it difficult to build a desktop computer motherboard with more than four slots for DDR2-SDRAM. Because DDR2-SDRAM has a 64-bit interface, it requires many metal interconnects on the motherboard to send and receive data. Because a motherboard with more than four memory slots would require additional interconnects, little room would remain for other components. Because fully buffered memory modules transmit data to and from the buffers rather than the memory chips themselves, they require less interconnects on the motherboard.
Resolving Traffic Problems
-
DDR2-SDRAM memory technology uses a single controller chip on the motherboard to facilitate communication between all of the memory modules and the rest of the system. Many memory modules could overwhelm the controller chip, causing errors, system instability or poor performance. Because the buffer chips on fully buffered memory modules store data before transmitting it to the memory controller, fully buffered memory modules make it possible to install a large amount of memory in a computer without overwhelming the controller chip.
-
Identification
-
Because of the heat generated by the buffer chips, many fully buffered memory modules have metal heat spreaders. Under the heat spreader, you can identify a fully buffered memory module by the presence of a buffer chip in the middle of one side of the module between the memory chips. The buffer looks much like a smaller version of a computer's central processing unit.
Subsequent Memory Technologies
-
In 2006, Intel and AMD both announced that they would drastically scale back support for fully buffered memory in favor of registered memory by 2008. Registered memory partially buffers communication between the memory modules and controller.
-
