What Are XMP, AMP, DOCP And EOCP?
All of these are approaches used by motherboard manufacturers to ease the installation and setup of DRAM.
Let’s start with XMP, or Extreme Memory Profile, a standard developed by Intel that allows DRAM manufacturers to place data in the SPD of the memory (SPD, or serial presence detect, is information stored on your DRAM module). XMP provides “one-click” configuration of nonstandard data rates, timings and voltage levels, replacing previous “automatic overclocking” technologies like Nvidia’s EPP 2.0.
Not to be outdone, AMD developed AMP (often called AMD Memory Profile), which is used primarily with its own Radeon DRAM lines (the Value, Entertainment, Performance and Gamer series). The need for an AMD-specific technology emerged as DRAM companies began phasing out EPP 2.0 profiles in favor of Intel’s XMP.
Most high-performance memory lacks AMP, but that doesn’t mean XMP profiles are useless. Many motherboard manufacturers initially enabled XMP profiles on AMD motherboards with great success. The problem is that this Intel technology is optimized for Intel’s memory controllers, and as these have gotten better, the higher frequencies and tighter timings have often become unstable or nonfunctional.
Motherboard manufacturer Asus appears to have seen this coming, first naming its XMP for AMD program “DOCP” (DRAM Overclock Profiles). Gigabyte joined the group with EOCP (Extended Overclock Profiles). These motherboards now use the XMP profiles in the SPD to adapt to AMD hardware. The BIOS is often programmed to set higher timings than those found in the SPD. My Crosshair Formula takes 2400 MT/s DRAM with XMP profiles of 2400 10-12-12-31 or 11-13-13-31 and sets it to 11-13-13-35 — a little looser than the timings Intel rigs use.
Here is an example of the BIOS showing the DOCP:
PnP, which stands for "plug and play," is a feature that has been available in motherboards for some time, going back (for our purposes, at least) to the introduction of the LGA 1155 interface. Until fairly recently, PnP has been a nonentity as far as DRAM goes. Then, Kingston came out with its HyperX Fury line of DRAM. When installed at boot-up, the DRAM configures itself to the highest data rate it can run. The link shows the chipsets supported by PnP for this line of DRAM.
