Page mode RAM is a now superseded design of RAM that provided a read and write performance increase in RAM of the time. At the time to read or write data to a memory cell, a signal would be sent to a row and then a column to define the specific cell, the data would be read or written and the column and row closed. Page mode allowed for the row to be held open so that multiple reads or writes could be performed on columns in that row saving the time needed to select and deselect the row each time.
Technipages Explains Page-Mode RAM
The most popular variant of page mode ram was fast page mode ram, invented in 1987 it made a minor latency improvement over standard page mode RAM. RAM operates at incredibly high speeds and saving tiny fractions of a second off of most read or write requests quickly stacks up to provide a performance increase when reading from other cells in the row. In sequential read tasks for one to two kilobytes of data, page mode RAM could reduce access time by around 40% over earlier implementations of RAM.
In random read or write operations, where the memory cells being accessed are not stored neatly in the same row page mode RAM caused a slight performance decrease due to to the increased overhead. This technique for speeding up access times for sequential operations over random operations lead to RAM manufacturers having to publish two performance figures as these numbers were no longer the same as each other. The sequential and random operations performance statistics remain in use to this day.
Common Uses of Page-Mode RAM
- Page mode RAM is a now superseded DRAM specification.
- Page mode RAM granted a performance increase over previous technologies in certain workloads.
- The popular fast page mode ram was succeeded by EDO RAM in 1995.
Common Misuses of Page-Mode RAM
- Page mode RAM is optimized for usage with multi-page word processing documents.
