FSB/DRAM ratio help pleaseee

[nene_mataro]

Hi everyone,
These days I've been reading A LOT about overclocking and other stuff, but I still have some questions I can´t solve either in books or on the net, please.

1) According to FSB/DRAM ratios, does the memory bus have a completely different clock from the FSB? Is it generated by another independent clock-generator circuit? (the cpu clock is FSB x multiplier, but the memory clock may not (e.g.6/5 ratio) )

2) RAM latencies are the number of clock cycles it takes to perform a certain memory operation. But...do those cycles refer to the FSB/memory clock(1:1)? I've read many times that "DDR transfers twice data in one cycle than the preceding SDR" . In fact, the "PC-x" nomenclature is found this way:

(memory bus clock rate) × 2 (for dual rate) × 8 bytes

But... where are the latencies here?? This formula supposes data (128 bits) is transferred in only one cycle!?? And consequently, all steps in a read/write process are performed with almost no timing signals! (only 1 rising edge and 1 falling edge)

3) In memory asynchronous mode, how the CPU know when to retrieve data? In synchronous mode (1:1 ratio) I suppose the CPU adds wait states (for that instruction) according to the memory clock frequency... but, again, here I suppose a write/read is performed within a single memory clock cycle, which may not be true.

4) Finally, the Pentium 4 has a QDR (x4) bus, but it still works with DDR (x2) memories. How come an external system can modify the way a DDR memory works in the same amount of time?

I think my questions are quite concise to be answered in a direct way. Help me please, Thanks a lot

 

[V3NOM]

LUPI! WE NEED YOUR HELP!

 

[Mondoman]

...
1) According to FSB/DRAM ratios, does the memory bus have a completely different clock from the FSB?

Essentially, yes.
...

...2) RAM latencies are the number of clock cycles it takes to perform a certain memory operation. But...do those cycles refer to the FSB/memory clock

They refer to the memory bus clock, not the FSB clock.
...

..... where are the latencies here?? This formula supposes data (128 bits) is transferred in only one cycle!??

The bus throughput we refer to is really the *maximum* throughput. The latencies pretty much apply to specifying the memory address to be read/written. Normally, though, we want to read/write a large block of consecutive addresses, not just a single address here and a single address there. These blocks can be read/written as bursts, where the address setup (and associated latencies) only takes place once, and succeeding addresses are read/written at the full bus speed.
Also, remember that the DDR/DDR2 DIMMs and the memory bus have 64 bits (8 bytes) per channel, so RAM is read/written in 64-bit chunks in parallel. Dual-channel memory bus designs add a duplicate 2nd channel, with 64 bits read/written on channel 1 and 64 more bits read/written on channel 2 simultaneously, for a total of 128 bits at a time.
...

...3) In memory asynchronous mode, how the CPU know when to retrieve data?...

The memory controller (located in the North Bridge in current Intel designs) mediates this; whether the FSB and memory bus are synchronous or not makes no difference. The CPU asks for data from the memory controller, and waits until it is available, or sends data to the memory controller when it is ready.
...

...4) Finally, the Pentium 4 has a QDR (x4) bus, but it still works with DDR (x2) memories.

The FSB and memory bus are independent; data is transferred from one to the other via the North Bridge, so one doesn't affect the other.

Hope that helps.