Question

6. [7 marks] Answer the following questions regarding main memory. a) What are the differences between DRAM and SRAM in terms of characteristics such as speed, size, and cost? [3] b) Given a memory address of 34Ah (10 bits) with 4 memory banks. Determine the memory bank address and the address of the word in the bank using Low Order Interleaving (LOI). [4]

Answer 1

a) SRAM is faster, costlier and occupies more space compared to DRAM. DRAM is mostly used for main memory whereas SRAM is used for cache memory.

SRAM faster Speed DRAM comparatively slower Cheaper when compared Cost Size less space consumption less power consumption highly expensive compared to DRAM takes up more space power consumption is more Power usage

b) Given 4 modules we need => 2 bits (2²=4)

Module capacity = 2^10-2 = 2⁸ = 256 ( thus 8 bits are used for this)

Now, given the memory address 34Ah, it can be represented as 1101001010 in binary.

thus, using LOI the memory bank address will be

1101 0010 10