Newer Magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) many times faster than RAM

If you always desired for a fast computer, an ordinary RAM may just not be a solution. German physicists and engineers have thus developed the Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (MRAM), which is not only faster but also more energy efficient. MRAM seems like it will boost the mobile computing industry and stores the level of charge by changing the north-south direction of a magnet’s field. IBM and other manufacturers are planning to use MRAM, which could spin electrons to flip the magnetic fields, which is also known as the spin-torque MRAM, something that the German physicists have further improvised and built the fastest so far.

By building tiny pillars of 165 nanometres, which act, as variable magnets at the top end, allow current to pass through from bottom to top and the spin of the electrons take place. The fields are flipped and it takes a while for it to settle to it’s new orientation. Then, the north and south axis draw circles in the air before finally settling which causes a wobble. Since this depends on the magnetic field and the wobble that takes place in a field, the German team developed a way to observe and control a magnetic field’s wobble during and after the flip. Right now, the MRAM is about 10 times faster than a MRAM, which needs 10 nanoseconds, and the conventional RAM needs 30 nanoseconds. This speed will definitely increase in the months and years to come.

Memory Modules Of Three Different Types

Memory modules can be defined as memory chips on a narrow circuit board. The memory chip contains dynamic random access memory integrated circuits.

Originally memory was installed in the system through individual chips or the dual inline package (DIP) chips. It was laborious and time consuming job to deal with DIP chips. As the system experienced thermal changes on heating and cooling, the chips crept out of their sockets leading to a 'chip creep' phenomena. This resulted in memory errors. Reseating the chips back into the sockets solved the problem of course, but it became labor intensive when a number of systems had to be supported.

A better alternative to prevent 'chip creep' was to solder the memory into the motherboard/expansion card. With this the connections became more stable, but there was another problem. If the chip went bad, it had to be de-soldered and a new one had to be re-soldered or even it was required to scrap the motherboard/memory card where the chip was installed. This turned out very expensive and memory troubleshooting became a difficult task. A chip that was both soldered and removable was required and that lead to a memory module called SIMM or the Single inline memory module. In desktop systems most commonly used are two main types of SIMMS, three types of DIMMS, and one type of RIMM. On the motherboard or on the memory card's special connectors, these small boards get plugged into. They are, in-fact soldered into the module and removing/replacing is virtually impossible. If any part fails, the entire module has to be replaced.

SIMMs are available in 30 pin or 72 pin physical types. The 30 pin has 8 bits and an option for 1 additional parity bit. The 72 pin has 32 bits plus an option for 4 additional parity bit. Both these versions can have chips on one side or both sides except that 30 pin SIMMs are physically smaller than the 72-pin version.

DIMMs (Dual Inline memory modules) are available in three main versions-Standard DIMMs with 168 pins with one notch on each side and two notches along the contact area. DDR DIMMs with 184 pins and two notches on either side and one offset notch along the contact area. DDR2 DIMMS with 240 pins with two notches on either side and one notch in the center of contact area. The DIMMs are dual inline because they have different signal pins located on each side of the module. They have many more pins than a SIMM with just 1" of additional length.

RIMM (Rambus in line memory modules) have different signal pins on each side. They are available in three physical types-a 16/18 bit version having 184 pins, a 32/36 bit version with 232 pins and a 64/72 bit version with 326 pins. All these plug into the same sized connector, but notches in the connectors vary. In the standard 16/18 bit RIMM there is one notch on each side and two notched located centrally in contact area.

USB 3.0 Overview

USB 3.0 is the next major version of "USB," or "Universal Serial Bus." USB 1.0 was released in 1996 as the brainchild of a group of companies led by Intel, and has since become the most common interfacing method for peripheral-to-computer connection. USB 2.0 was released in 2000, offering massively increased transfer speeds in addition to being backwards compatible.

Now, in an age where hi-def is the standard, greater amounts of bandwidth are needed for even standard products--and this is where USB 3.0 shines. USB 3.0 promises speeds in excess of 10x what USB 2.0 offers, with data transfer speeds around 4.8Gbps as well as backwards compatibility.

Power-consumption has also been addressed by USB 3.0, as devices which need more power can now have access to it, while devices needing less power can utilize USB 3.0's 'power saving' states. Additionally, devices can power-down portions of their hardware not in use to save energy.

The switch to USB 3.0 will not happen overnight. Much like how USB 2.0 took years to fully implement, USB 3.0 will be something that enters the market gradually, propelled by computer manufacturers who decide to include the technology on the products they ship. USB 3.0 products are actually available now, albeit in limited numbers; however, if you wanted to be the first kid on the block to own a USB 3.0 device, you could go pick up a Seagate USB 3.0 external harddrive or flash disk. Just don't let anyone know you won't be able to use it for a year or so.

Understanding SLI and CrossFire

Although SLI and CrossFire have been around for a few years, it is only recently that we really see great breakthrough in the technology. With the recent release of AMD/ATI spider platform and its CrossFireX technology, what seems like an expensive upgrade in the past has now become a more affordable option for gamers who are looking to boost their system graphical performance.


Understanding SLI

The term SLI was first coined by 3dfx when they released their Scan-Line Interleave technology. This technology was introduced to the consumer market in 1998 and used in the Voodoo2 line of video cards. After acquiring 3dfx, Nvidia come up with a new technology that uses the PCI-Express bus to improve graphics performance, and named it Scalable Link Interface, in short, SLI.

With the same concept as the dual core CPU, the idea behind SLI is to split the work load to smaller pieces so that different GPUs can be used to process it concurrently. In a SLI setting, two (or more) graphics cards are connected in a master-slave setting via a SLI bridge. When rendering a 3D scene, the work load is split into half and each card will be in charge of one half of the work load. When the slave card is done, it sends its output to the master card via the SLI bridge, which then combines the two results into one and sent to the output for display.

In order to use SLI on your system, you have to fulfill the following criteria:

* Own a motherboard that is based on an Nvidia chipset (the only exception is the Intel Dual Socket Extreme platform which is based on the Intel D5400XS motherboard which supports both SLI and CrossFireX technologies) and have at least two PCI-Express 16x slots.
* Two (or more) nVidia SLI graphics cards of the same GPU

SLI is rather strict on the type of GPU used. While you can set up SLI with two graphics cards from different manufacturers, the condition is: they must be using the same GPU (and preferably same clock speed and memory). In addition, not all Nvidia’s graphics cards are SLI-capable. While the latest release of graphics cards are all SLI-capable, only a selected few from the past series can run SLI. It is important to verify this before buying the graphics card.

What Is CPU Socket Configuration?

A computer processor has to have quick access to the data it needs to process so that a computer can operate efficiently. To accomplish this, processors connect to computers through a high-speed connector known as a socket. There are numerous sockets for numerous processors, but they all share some common traits.


History
1. The first processor socket was created for the Intel 8086 but the design, known as Dual In-Line Package, was not exclusive to processors and had been used with different electronic components since 1965. The first processor exclusive socket was Intel's Socket 1, which was released in 1989. The Socket 1 uses a Pin Grid Array, a series of pins which lined up with conductive pads on a computer's motherboard.

Purpose
2. The CPU socket fills two roles at once. The first is that it provides power to the processor which has been inserted. Processors are very sensitive to power fluctuations and the power requirements for processors tends to be different between models, which is why most processors are made for only one specific socket. The socket also serves as a means of communication between the processor and the rest of the computer.

Configuration
3. While Pin Grid Array (PGA) was the original CPU socket configuration, and most early sockets were based on it, today's sockets tend to use a different configuration known as Land Grid Array (LGA). The LGA socket configuration, which is being adapted in different ways by both Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, has the same concept as PGA but places the pins on the motherboard rather than the processor.

Multiple Sockets
4. Most computers have a CPU socket configuration which features a single socket, but that isn't always the case. There are some motherboards, usually meant for use in servers or supercomputers, which can accept more than a single processor. In fact, some server boards can accept four or more processors. These motherboards always use four identical CPU socket configurations, however. Motherboards with multiple different
sockets do not exist.

Compatibility
5. Every processor manufacturer has its own socket configurations which are proprietary and do not work with the processors of other companies. Manufacturers also frequently come out with new sockets which are necessary to power and communicate with newer, more powerful processors. In most cases, a processor will not even fit into a socket it was not made for, and if it does, it won't allow the computer to boot.