Voice of Dissent I agree, very knowledgable and clearly spoken. This video took me back a few years, I had a ZX81 when they were new.... the intermitent (Solved with a bit of Blue Tack) RAM extention box problem too. 😆
we had an old dutch technology show on tv in the 80's called "wondere wereld" where an astromomer explained new things in computer technology in an accesible way, which this show reminds me a bit of in the way things are presented. although he (Chriet titulaer) guy covered a much wider array of technology, i really miss that kind of of stuff these days in the way it is covered, especially the excitement the man had for these new things, you could just feel it, and it rubbed off positively on others. sadly that man died last year, he was a real staple to bringing awareness of technological innovation to the public in an understandable and exciting way, some even found it necessary to taint his death with anti-corporate politics surrounding his tight connections with philips. i guess doens't mean much to others since all his work is in dutch, but just reminiscing about cool tech shows. but i seem to have a preference towards british youtubers as they're usually telling it without overselling it, it just feels more natural and personal that way. (i think europeans on average tend to talk a lot about technical details, which is more likely to teach you something in the process) i could could totally see this being something on tv, although who still has airplay time for sincere informational stuff on the tele these days?... :(
Here's my vote. EC channel has the most satisfying* videos of 2018! 🏆 * In all categories. Perfectly done. Refreshed my non volatile memory with facts of volatile memory.
Agreed, it's both refreshing and accurate to have a non-political fact based explanation. Non-political i.e. non-corporate biased standards explanation.
And if you use the new Microsoft Chromium based Edge replacement, you'll be able to open 6 tabs to download 6 different browsers to replace it... and never open it again.
Dude, this video is golden. It can be used in schools as a part of standard educational program, like an actual piece of academic knowledge or whatever it's called. You should definitely make another video "Explaining More Ram" where you talk about ECC, timings and maybe even sub-timings. Your videos will become sort of a basis for all of the students in the world, not only for computer science students but for other specialities (as a part of Informatics)
I hope that in some way, shape or form you sir are receiving awards for all you do to present these videos. I have been blown away by your effectiveness to produce such informative 15 minutes of pure captivating enjoyment. My hat is off to you Chris!
Excellent video on RAM. Once again your presentation reminded me of the lectures I used give at the university for department's computer literacy class. The only key difference is that the lecture started with measuring RAM in kilobytes. The presentation bring back fond memories of building my first PC in 1989 - carefully plugging in those individual RAM ICs, hopefully not bending any of the legs in the process. I also fondly remember attending computer shows where vendors would sell motherboards, RAM and other components so hobbyist could build their PC compatibles and buying SIPs for helping a friend build his first PC compatible computer. Thanks again for a wonderful video, and always keep up the good work!
As a computer engineering major, Learning about computer technology outside of school is far more interesting. I'm glad I stumbled upon this channel while aimlessly wondering the depths of the internet instead of working on a lab.
RUclips viewers need communicative speakers like you to pass the knowledge efficiently. The key of success is to simplify knowledge in order to explain it easily. You have my respect sir!!!!
Where I worked, we had a computer that used core (non-volatile) memory. I remember the circuit boards - they were maybe 18 x 18 inches. This computer was used to weld truck cabs at a GM truck plant in lots of stages, all running simultaneously. The computer was only 8K but took up a huge area. Two large mobile homes were put together to house it, the I/O being the reason for the size. For keyboards, we had maybe nine radio teletype machines (RTTY) and they were always on the fritz. To start this whole thing, you would pull a 'boot strap' through a reader. It was a ticker tape type of affair about six inches long and one inch wide with holes punched in it and it had to be pulled because the drive motor was shot. The curious thing about this was that it could do more than one thing at a time. This was before the Amiga and Apple ever even thought about time slicing. This is nothing now, but back then, that was a big deal. I know it could do more that one thing at a time because I ran some programs that I had written in basic while it was welding up truck cabs. Oh, and there were no monitors or CRT screens. Any visible output was on paper rolls e.g. my basic program(s). This was in the 70s & 80s.
I am a filmmaker in my early 20's, just starting out in my career. I am building two new computers for my studio this week, and I wanted to learn everything I need to know about computer components before I start the process. I've had so many questions for years that I have tried searching the answers for again and again. And you've cleared up half of them within about 30 minutes! For instance: RAM frequency. Never understood what it was, now I do. Thank you! At first, I judged your style because it isn't sleek and modern, but I was wrong. Your videos are wonderful. Also, please make a part 2 that goes into ECC memory and latency!
Thanks for this. :) However, I'd argue that my style is "sleek", if certainly traditional. "Non-sleek" I would argue is the jump-cut fest delivered by many RUclipsrs who cannot even be bothered to do re-takes or B-roll so that their final shots will smoothly (sleekly!) cut together. I'm very much in the Walter Murch school of editing, which is based on an understanding of visual perception.
@@ExplainingComputers With that I would agree! Your videos actually are quite sleek, in a more traditional way. Which, in my opinion, is better for portraying the information.
My very first time opening up a PC case and working on it in any way was with my Dell that I had paid over $2,000 USD for. I don't remember the exact specs, except that it had a Pentium III, 800 MHz chip in it and it still had a 3.25" floppy drive. All I did was double the memory in it by adding a second stick. I do remember that it had 128 MB of PC133 SDRAM to start. That would have been back in the year 2000 and was enough to peak my curiosity of how these things worked. I've been learning about and working on them in some way ever since then and today I even own a small IT business in El Paso, Texas, USA. Keep up the great work on these videos. I am currently watching your Ryzen Budget PC Build #1 video and jumped back here for a minute.
I've known computers since my 80286 back in 1990 and I'm very impressed with your channel and I still learn something from your streams or find them fun! Keep it going.
What I really liked is that I got to see older RAM. It kind of helps see how the advancements have been made. Otherwise, a very good intro to RAM. Thanks!
This is as great as ever, all your videos should be a compulsery schools program, you make a briliant teacher, please don't ever stop what you are doing.
Another very informative and well presented video - Brings to mind the perversity of some RAM manufacturers who used to label their modules with a whole string of numbers and letters displaying anything BUT the actual capacity of the module! I used to wonder why on earth they couldn't just state directly HOW BIG the damn thing was!
Thank you Christopher Barnatt, for explaining RAM (and all the other subjects you've touched) so well. I really feel educated. You are a perfect teacher.
I would like to just take a moment to thank you for your professional, detailed, and entertaining videos. I thought my knowledge about the hardware components were average if not slightly above average, but thanks to your beautiful explanation, I learned much more than I thought I knew. I also enjoy the general aesthetics of your videos. I sincerely look forward to learn more from your channel!
Hey Chris, I came here after watching your latest video about SSDs and I wanted to say after nearly two years we are finally ready for part two of your Explaining RAM Video where you explain things you show at 10:01. What is ECC RAM and why should I aim for ECC RAM when I want to build a new PC opting for long term use rather than peak performance?
In the 1980's I was a young US Navy technician working on older fighter jets left over from the 1960's but still in service. They used (very heavy) magnetic ring memory cores for the navigation computers. We programmed them with a reel to reel 'punch tape' device as they only had about 24Kb memory.
As always excellent video. And even though I thought I know everything about this particular subject, you sir have yet again prove me wrong. I have heard about magnetic core storage, had a PC with IC RAM (in a 286 powered desktop) but I haven't heard nor have I ever seen a SIP RAM.
Again a very informative video with densely packed information that is supplied easily understandable! I love your work! I hope you will do a video with a deep-dive into RAM timings because I still wonder if I am able to further overclock my RAM. Also, there is even Quad-Channel RAM, which is also really interesting and much harder to keep it stable when overclocking, which is important to me. I am currently running a Threadripper 1950X at 4 GHz overclocked and 32 GByte of 3200MT/s DDR4 Tcl 14 G.Skill RAM in Quad-Channel mode (Module spec).
Amazing video! I understand everything now. Thank you for teaching me so much once again. I was researching why Amazon shows MT/s and I have only heard about Mhz and this is the best video I found to answer my question. Cheers. :)
I have only just come across this channel & wow, the accurate information is in abundance, i have so many videos to catch up on, i would also like to say thank you Chris for all this wealth of knowledge that you are providing & now i know we're to go for any future builds & information 👍
Ur the man man .. Ur the man .. Really helpful and presented in a way anyone can easily grasp .. appreciate all the efforts and keep up the good work .
i realy like the clean style of your Videos :) it´s much less distracting than most other youtube explain videos. Feels like school, but i actually learn somthing from it, which is up to date and of practical use :)
Thank you for another entertaining video, EC. Just an interesting footnote to add here, core memories (at least as far as I have it) are actually non-volatile. When the power is switched off the core "doughnuts" still remain in their last programmed position and remain so until power is again restored. I believe it was even used on some of the American space shuttles.
This is true -- note that in the intro segment I describe *modern* RAM as volatile (ie not all RAM!). The script for this video had to be very carefully written! :)
I enjoyed every byte of your well done new video about RAM. I won an award programming a Fingerspelling App into a Commodore PET personal computer with 8K RAM. I do wonder if there's a reliability problem with a memory circuitboard having hundreds of pins so close to each other working at very high data rates. Thanks again, Christopher.
Wow that was a blast from the past seeing that Sinclair Chris! I had that same one back in the day. I also had a Tandy Coco 16, a 64, and 128. The 64 was actually made by soldering in additional ram chips to the 16 and bank switching. I also had a pair of Commodore 64 and a bunch of other machines over the beginning years. In many ways more fun than these new ones in spite of the limited power by today's standards.
Video is well done. I feel old now, because i upgraded my first MegaST1 to 4 by soldering the ram ages ago. That was 4 Megabyte RAM and it was one of the biggest computer available for money that time. Quite a while later at work i bought whopping 4 Gb of Ram for more then 22000 DM and put it into my RS6000 with AIX. Now I have several computers at home with 64 Gb and 32 GB for less then 1000 Euro.
Well that was spooky, firstly you talking about the Elliott 803 Core Store (no relation though) :) And secondly I ordered and fitted some extra RAM on Friday. So the video was a bit late for me, luckily I bought the correct RAM type and speed. Some great info as usual Chris.
I just love your videos. Straight, to the point, on topic, without all the dog and pony show bs. I especially love the history in them. Keep up the outstanding content!
I hope you never stop making video's. I love all your video's. I find them informing, interesting, fun, even hilarious at times, and soothing for some reason. Great job. Love you!
Fun. I'm on the verge of putting together a proper workstation for hardware development, while also learning registry level hardware with a combination of Z80s, 68K's, and 6502s. You covered RAM basics across all of my interests. I welcome more in depth abstract overview type content like this. Perhaps you could do a rundown of the history of logic and more specifically delve into the early history of PLDs. The early PAL/GAL/HAL and CPLD evolution seem to be technologies that fall into the pre-internet age gap. They don't have the nostalgia staying power of earlier vintage computers and they lack the documentation available for tech that became mainstream during the late 90's onwards. I understand you have a more topographic approach to technical content, but I'm just adding my $0.002 adsense to say you have room available to stretch the boundaries further. Thanks for the upload. -Jake
Gday Chris, I am going to go out on a lim here and ask u to make a follow up video about ram, more specifically using as a ramdrive and loading the windows pagefile sys onto it when it boots up and b4 shutdown it saves the pagefile back to the hard drive or sd card/usb stick. The reason is to help resurrect older pc's and give them a second life, storage being an issue due to the old size limitations and running various windows which max out the drive space and not leaving enough for an operating pagefile which can run from excess ram installed. Trying to find such info has proven very illusive and ur the master of pc's from their emergence in our world of tech. I really enjoy ur process of explaining things and no matter what what I thought I knew is not all there is to know and u add to the education of what i missed when I learnt about pc's. Thanks Chris for the channel.
I recall teaching my "data processing" students how core memory worked. The X and Y address lines, the sense wire, the hysteresis loop, etc. When IC RAM came along how it worked was no longer in the text books. Apparently the authors decided we did not need to know or maybe they did not know how it worked. But old terms do not go away very fast. 50 years later memory dumps as still called "Core" dumps by lots of folks. Linux still has core man page and the memory dump file is named "core".
Great stuff as usual Chris. Seeing that ZX-81 brings back memories. I tell me kids about the mainframes I worked on in my younger days and how much more powerful their phones are than those machines that took up entire rooms. It's amazing how much computing technology has improved.
Thank you for this. My favorite part is when you say: "Late Nineties, Early Nought-ie"... LOL I have never heard that before (being from Canada) it's just not (or should I say 'nought') what we say... Brought a smile to my face that the Millennium was naughty... I mean Nought-ie. Thanks again for this video! Very helpful.
For the next time going in-depth on timings would be interesting. For Ryzen it is rather important to sharpen the timings as much as possible because in essence you use two CPU's on one package. When data has to go from the cache on one CCX to the other you have extra latency, the sharper the timings and the higher the speed the less that latency.
Don't forget that the Z80 had a plug in module to expand the ram to a massive 64K. I think mine is stuffed in a drawer somewhere as an exhibit of our past suffrage. Today's young people fail to appreciate what we went through then so they can have their Androids.....
Yeah...unless some of these "young people" end up coding in Assembly PIC, MPS430 and Atmel microcontrollers or for the heck of it try to code for devices using older known processors (Zilog Z80, MOS 6502, Motorola 68000, ect.) or different architectures (like MIPS).
Another great video! It made me search for the growth of ram capacity in PCs since 1982. By my estimates, at current growth rates, by around 2024 maximum capacity will be 1TB in PCs (think of threadripper like pcs). And it will not be until around 2042 that we will see a 1Petabyte RAM PC.
Nicely explained video. But, you overlooked explaining why there are so many more connections (pins) on the DIMM versus the SIMM. ie. That the original 30 pin SIMM was only an 8 bit memory module (or 9 bit with parity), with 72 pin SIMM moving to 32 bits. The DIMM then being a 64 bit memory module. In addition, each generation having more address lines (the 30 pin SIMM maxing out at 16MB). Memory modules didn’t really came about to solve “chip creep”, as you suggest. It was simply that the 1 bit wide DRAM’s chips of the time (eg. 41256 chips - 256K x 1 DRAM, following on from earlier 4116 / 4164 DRAM etc.) always required identical system PCB layout of 8 parallel wired chips, with each chip delivering 1 bit of the required byte from each address. Therefore, putting 8 chips onto a byte-wide SIP or SIMM was simply a logical "common memory layout" design convenience evolution. :)
I "overlooked" on purpose -- there was already an information overload in this video. :) I checked "chip creep" (like everything else in this video) from several sources, but totally take your point on the layout issue. Ultimately, any video like this is far more an issue of what to leave out as much as what to leave in. Some early drafts of the script her ran over 40 minutes, nd ultimately whatever I included or did not include here I could not please everybody.The purpose of the intro (history) sections was to provide context and engagement with content less dry than the tech/specs that follow. And this is why I did not get into the while 8/16/32/64 bit thing.
@@ExplainingComputers No need to explain, of course. I do take your point about information overload! :) An excellent and nicely explained video in any case. I always look forward to your videos. Keep up the awesome work!
Thank you for calling it RAM Rant below: instead of using the vague term "memory" that people like to use, which is bad. if you're talking about a computer and you mention your RAM there's only one thing it can be if you talk about your computer and you mention a hard drive there's only one thing it can be but if you talk about having a problem with your computer memory then nobody knows what you're talking about because it could be either, it's very annoying when I talk about computers with other people that aren't as educated about the terminology.
Cool video. Fun Fact: Before RAM was reliable in a portable platform the USAF used a very long piece of coiled wire to "store" bits of data for the F-86's fire control system. Due to the limits of the speed of light the pulses would be delayed before emerging on the other end and be used to calculate bullet trajectories. The fighter was used during the Korean War over the same country where two of the three big RAM manufacturers are located: Samsung, SK Hynix, and (Micron in the US).
Wasn't that the memory that used actual Mercury as it's storage medium? Even my 486 with it's SIMMs was more convenient, by several orders of magnitude
In 1968 I worked in a place with an emergency generator. Each wednesday they tested the emergency generator and the mercury delay lines "forgot" what they knew. Each one had to be reloaded. The same thing happened when they switched the generator off after the test.
please do a part 2. all of this information I already knew, but some of the listed information you didn't cover, I don't. It would be extremely helpful, and I think, to some, enjoyable to learn more. You are a great teacher!
High end motherboards have supported triple and even quad channel memory for some years now (since i7 LGA 1366), I guess it hasn't become mainstream because you need more memory & memory sockets which costs more. Since memory gets faster anyway the speed advantage is soon eroded. Memory latency is an issue worth mentioning, it gets worse with each generation such that the first modules of each generarion are often slower for random access than the last modules of the previous generation. Q: do DRAM cells fail individually like SSDs? Can memory controllers map out bad RAM?
Generally yes, but between generations there is often a retrograde period where the previous generation outperforms the first available memory of the next generation.
From 1998 until 2000, I worked at a PCB factory that used the following: One of the first transistor based compouters built in 1973, which had a whooping 32 KBs of magnetic core RAM (Used for controlling a CNC drill). Data input for this computer was done by paper tape but... ... we also used an XT-8088 PC with a custom designed interface for the aforementioned 1973 computer to allow uploads of files from 5.25 inch floppies. It also had an amazing 10 Megabyte MFM hard drive for the OS. The magnetic core RAM was especially interesting as it was also non-volatile, so programs would remain in memory even if the power was turned off and modules removed. Good times...
Public television needs to pick this guy up. I've never seen anyone do a nicer job of explaining things in a way that's accessible to everyone.
Voice of Dissent
I agree, very knowledgable and clearly spoken.
This video took me back a few years, I had a ZX81 when they were new.... the intermitent (Solved with a bit of Blue Tack) RAM extention box problem too. 😆
we had an old dutch technology show on tv in the 80's called "wondere wereld"
where an astromomer explained new things in computer technology in an accesible way,
which this show reminds me a bit of in the way things are presented.
although he (Chriet titulaer) guy covered a much wider array of technology, i really miss that kind of of stuff these days in the way it is covered,
especially the excitement the man had for these new things, you could just feel it, and it rubbed off positively on others.
sadly that man died last year, he was a real staple to bringing awareness of technological innovation to the public in an understandable and exciting way, some even found it necessary to taint his death with anti-corporate politics surrounding his tight connections with philips.
i guess doens't mean much to others since all his work is in dutch, but just reminiscing about cool tech shows.
but i seem to have a preference towards british youtubers as they're usually telling it without overselling it,
it just feels more natural and personal that way.
(i think europeans on average tend to talk a lot about technical details, which is more likely to teach you something in the process)
i could could totally see this being something on tv,
although who still has airplay time for sincere informational stuff on the tele these days?... :(
"Public television" is 20th century technology. What's more important is to teach people to stop using and funding it and get with the times.
This would imply that television still carries programming not aimed at barely conscious, drooling masses, unfortunately.
YES Yes yes: PBS should think about a STEM program for kids
Here's my vote.
EC channel has the most satisfying* videos of 2018! 🏆
* In all categories.
Perfectly done.
Refreshed my non volatile memory with facts of volatile memory.
Love that last line! :) Interesting how the human brain can be both volatile and non-volatile storage . . .
ExplainingComputers
Exactly that!
Fascinating!
Agreed, it's both refreshing and accurate to have a non-political fact based explanation.
Non-political i.e. non-corporate biased standards explanation.
i know it i love his videos
I agree!
With a petabyte of ram in the future you might be able to open 6 tabs in chrome.
A whole six!
Actually, 8 or even 10 could be possible, if your terabyte fiber network supports it.
@@LordDragon1965 That is just madness!
And if you use the new Microsoft Chromium based Edge replacement, you'll be able to open 6 tabs to download 6 different browsers to replace it... and never open it again.
That was really funny. I honestly laughed out loud and drew attention. Good on you.
Very clearly explained......as always
Dude, this video is golden. It can be used in schools as a part of standard educational program, like an actual piece of academic knowledge or whatever it's called. You should definitely make another video "Explaining More Ram" where you talk about ECC, timings and maybe even sub-timings. Your videos will become sort of a basis for all of the students in the world, not only for computer science students but for other specialities (as a part of Informatics)
Thanks. I hope that many people find this useful.
I hope that in some way, shape or form you sir are receiving awards for all you do to present these videos. I have been blown away by your effectiveness to produce such informative 15 minutes of pure captivating enjoyment. My hat is off to you Chris!
Thanks.
That guy looks like a total nerd, which gives him more credibility.
Subbed.
Welcome aboard!
@@ExplainingComputers , thanks man you explain really well:)
Excellent video on RAM. Once again your presentation reminded me of the lectures I used give at the university for department's computer literacy class. The only key difference is that the lecture started with measuring RAM in kilobytes. The presentation bring back fond memories of building my first PC in 1989 - carefully plugging in those individual RAM ICs, hopefully not bending any of the legs in the process. I also fondly remember attending computer shows where vendors would sell motherboards, RAM and other components so hobbyist could build their PC compatibles and buying SIPs for helping a friend build his first PC compatible computer. Thanks again for a wonderful video, and always keep up the good work!
I think an extended cut video (or part 2) about all those mentioned at 10:00 including GDDR RAM would be great for the sake of completeness.
As a computer engineering major,
Learning about computer technology outside of school is far more interesting.
I'm glad I stumbled upon this channel while aimlessly wondering the depths of the internet instead of working on a lab.
What a wonderful explanation, if someone ever asks me to explain ram, I’ll send them this video. You did a remarkable job sir.
RUclips viewers need communicative speakers like you to pass the knowledge efficiently. The key of success is to simplify knowledge in order to explain it easily. You have my respect sir!!!!
Where I worked, we had a computer that used core (non-volatile) memory. I remember the circuit boards - they were maybe 18 x 18 inches. This computer was used to weld truck cabs at a GM truck plant in lots of stages, all running simultaneously. The computer was only 8K but took up a huge area. Two large mobile homes were put together to house it, the I/O being the reason for the size. For keyboards, we had maybe nine radio teletype machines (RTTY) and they were always on the fritz. To start this whole thing, you would pull a 'boot strap' through a reader. It was a ticker tape type of affair about six inches long and one inch wide with holes punched in it and it had to be pulled because the drive motor was shot. The curious thing about this was that it could do more than one thing at a time. This was before the Amiga and Apple ever even thought about time slicing. This is nothing now, but back then, that was a big deal. I know it could do more that one thing at a time because I ran some programs that I had written in basic while it was welding up truck cabs. Oh, and there were no monitors or CRT screens. Any visible output was on paper rolls e.g. my basic program(s). This was in the 70s & 80s.
A great story. Thanks for sharing here. In some ways computers were more amazing years ago.
This is one of the most informative videos on RAM that I've seen. Well done!
Thanks.
Thanks Chris, you wouldn't believe how many newspapers i had to deliver to buy my ZX81. Never looked back.
I am a filmmaker in my early 20's, just starting out in my career. I am building two new computers for my studio this week, and I wanted to learn everything I need to know about computer components before I start the process.
I've had so many questions for years that I have tried searching the answers for again and again. And you've cleared up half of them within about 30 minutes! For instance: RAM frequency. Never understood what it was, now I do. Thank you!
At first, I judged your style because it isn't sleek and modern, but I was wrong. Your videos are wonderful. Also, please make a part 2 that goes into ECC memory and latency!
Thanks for this. :) However, I'd argue that my style is "sleek", if certainly traditional. "Non-sleek" I would argue is the jump-cut fest delivered by many RUclipsrs who cannot even be bothered to do re-takes or B-roll so that their final shots will smoothly (sleekly!) cut together. I'm very much in the Walter Murch school of editing, which is based on an understanding of visual perception.
@@ExplainingComputers With that I would agree! Your videos actually are quite sleek, in a more traditional way. Which, in my opinion, is better for portraying the information.
Very informative and decently explained. There's no other video which explains RAM so efficiently.
My very first time opening up a PC case and working on it in any way was with my Dell that I had paid over $2,000 USD for. I don't remember the exact specs, except that it had a Pentium III, 800 MHz chip in it and it still had a 3.25" floppy drive. All I did was double the memory in it by adding a second stick. I do remember that it had 128 MB of PC133 SDRAM to start. That would have been back in the year 2000 and was enough to peak my curiosity of how these things worked. I've been learning about and working on them in some way ever since then and today I even own a small IT business in El Paso, Texas, USA. Keep up the great work on these videos. I am currently watching your Ryzen Budget PC Build #1 video and jumped back here for a minute.
Great timing. I just bought a replacement 8GB ram 3 days ago so I was looking to do some research and educate myself on the differences.
I've known computers since my 80286 back in 1990 and I'm very impressed with your channel and I still learn something from your streams or find them fun! Keep it going.
Thanks for your kind feedback.
What I really liked is that I got to see older RAM. It kind of helps see how the advancements have been made. Otherwise, a very good intro to RAM. Thanks!
This is as great as ever, all your videos should be a compulsery schools program, you make a briliant teacher, please don't ever stop what you are doing.
Thanks.
Another very informative and well presented video - Brings to mind the perversity of some RAM manufacturers who used to label their modules with a whole string of numbers and letters displaying anything BUT the actual capacity of the module! I used to wonder why on earth they couldn't just state directly HOW BIG the damn thing was!
Thank you Christopher Barnatt, for explaining RAM (and all the other subjects you've touched) so well. I really feel educated. You are a perfect teacher.
Many thanks. :)
You always upload a video about something I'm wondering about right when I need it! Keep up the good videos!
I would like to just take a moment to thank you for your professional, detailed, and entertaining videos. I thought my knowledge about the hardware components were average if not slightly above average, but thanks to your beautiful explanation, I learned much more than I thought I knew. I also enjoy the general aesthetics of your videos. I sincerely look forward to learn more from your channel!
Man this content deserves more view. Thanks as always for the informative videos. 👍
Hey Chris, I came here after watching your latest video about SSDs and I wanted to say after nearly two years we are finally ready for part two of your Explaining RAM Video where you explain things you show at 10:01.
What is ECC RAM and why should I aim for ECC RAM when I want to build a new PC opting for long term use rather than peak performance?
never mind...
ruclips.net/video/pPeCNrNTr3k/видео.html
In the 1980's I was a young US Navy technician working on older fighter jets left over from the 1960's but still in service. They used (very heavy) magnetic ring memory cores for the navigation computers. We programmed them with a reel to reel 'punch tape' device as they only had about 24Kb memory.
How the world has changed . . .
Is 24KB enough?
this is the first RUclips video i have seen without a single dislike.
As always excellent video. And even though I thought I know everything about this particular subject, you sir have yet again prove me wrong. I have heard about magnetic core storage, had a PC with IC RAM (in a 286 powered desktop) but I haven't heard nor have I ever seen a SIP RAM.
Explained in a way anyone can understand. At the end I was able to decipher the naming convention on DDR4 RAM.
Thank you so much
Excellent video! Plenty of information to soak up and enjoy! I would love to see a video on Graphics cards. Please.
Very clear and simple explanation of RAM. I hate to admit it but I never knew what all those terms meant despite my technical background.
Again a very informative video with densely packed information that is supplied easily understandable! I love your work!
I hope you will do a video with a deep-dive into RAM timings because I still wonder if I am able to further overclock my RAM.
Also, there is even Quad-Channel RAM, which is also really interesting and much harder to keep it stable when overclocking, which is important to me.
I am currently running a Threadripper 1950X at 4 GHz overclocked and 32 GByte of 3200MT/s DDR4 Tcl 14 G.Skill RAM in Quad-Channel mode (Module spec).
Amazing video! I understand everything now. Thank you for teaching me so much once again. I was researching why Amazon shows MT/s and I have only heard about Mhz and this is the best video I found to answer my question.
Cheers. :)
facinating video. not to complicated to understand but still comprehensive.
You are definitely the best presenter on the Internet. Thank you and keep producing excellent videos.
Thanks. :)
Another great master class that’s worth viewing, thank you Prof 🙏🏾
I have only just come across this channel & wow, the accurate information is in abundance, i have so many videos to catch up on, i would also like to say thank you Chris for all this wealth of knowledge that you are providing & now i know we're to go for any future builds & information 👍
Ur the man man .. Ur the man ..
Really helpful and presented in a way anyone can easily grasp .. appreciate all the efforts and keep up the good work .
In the 90's we used to have HDDs in MBs now we have the RAM in GBs. Technology is amazing.
Thanks Chris for the nice and informative video.
I knew all this already but I still enjoy watching your videos.
Absolutely concur. Thoroughly enjoy.
Yup me too!
i realy like the clean style of your Videos :) it´s much less distracting than most other youtube explain videos. Feels like school, but i actually learn somthing from it, which is up to date and of practical use :)
Great video dude, i root for your channel's success.
I can tell how studiously you make this video especially at 10:20 of the video, your wording perfectly match the animation.
Thank you for another entertaining video, EC. Just an interesting footnote to add here, core memories (at least as far as I have it) are actually non-volatile. When the power is switched off the core "doughnuts" still remain in their last programmed position and remain so until power is again restored. I believe it was even used on some of the American space shuttles.
This is true -- note that in the intro segment I describe *modern* RAM as volatile (ie not all RAM!). The script for this video had to be very carefully written! :)
I enjoyed every byte of your well done new video about RAM. I won an award programming a Fingerspelling App into a Commodore PET personal computer with 8K RAM. I do wonder if there's a reliability problem with a memory circuitboard having hundreds of pins so close to each other working at very high data rates. Thanks again, Christopher.
Wow, great job!
Hu hu
This was a really good explanation. I learned a lot of new terms and a bit history today. Great job Chris.
Another excellent presentation! Keep up the great work!
Wow that was a blast from the past seeing that Sinclair Chris! I had that same one back in the day. I also had a Tandy Coco 16, a 64, and 128. The 64 was actually made by soldering in additional ram chips to the 16 and bank switching. I also had a pair of Commodore 64 and a bunch of other machines over the beginning years. In many ways more fun than these new ones in spite of the limited power by today's standards.
RAM, I'd tell you what it's all about. But I've forgotten.
Looks like you need your memory refreshed. 😁
That was excellent! Thank you very much! Makes a lot more sense when you explain the history of the RAM.
"What that amount of RAM will actually be used for?" Rendering VR cat videos of course.
Video is well done.
I feel old now, because i upgraded my first MegaST1 to 4 by soldering the ram ages ago. That was 4 Megabyte RAM and it was one of the biggest computer available for money that time. Quite a while later at work i bought whopping 4 Gb of Ram for more then 22000 DM and put it into my RS6000 with AIX.
Now I have several computers at home with 64 Gb and 32 GB for less then 1000 Euro.
Well that was spooky, firstly you talking about the Elliott 803 Core Store (no relation though) :) And secondly I ordered and fitted some extra RAM on Friday. So the video was a bit late for me, luckily I bought the correct RAM type and speed. Some great info as usual Chris.
I just love your videos. Straight, to the point, on topic, without all the dog and pony show bs. I especially love the history in them. Keep up the outstanding content!
Thanks for your kind feedback. Look out for the video after next on retro storage.
@@ExplainingComputers I'll be looking forward to it. 😊
I Remember the days of trying to fit your program in 4k of memory, 16k expansion pack came out, like a whole new world.
I hope you never stop making video's. I love all your video's. I find them informing, interesting, fun, even hilarious at times, and soothing for some reason. Great job. Love you!
Thanks. :)
Fun. I'm on the verge of putting together a proper workstation for hardware development, while also learning registry level hardware with a combination of Z80s, 68K's, and 6502s. You covered RAM basics across all of my interests.
I welcome more in depth abstract overview type content like this. Perhaps you could do a rundown of the history of logic and more specifically delve into the early history of PLDs. The early PAL/GAL/HAL and CPLD evolution seem to be technologies that fall into the pre-internet age gap. They don't have the nostalgia staying power of earlier vintage computers and they lack the documentation available for tech that became mainstream during the late 90's onwards.
I understand you have a more topographic approach to technical content, but I'm just adding my $0.002 adsense to say you have room available to stretch the boundaries further.
Thanks for the upload.
-Jake
Good ideas for a future video -- noted with thanks.
Very well explained in a direct, clear and easy-to-understand way. Great job!
Beautiful video... Well explained
Gday Chris, I am going to go out on a lim here and ask u to make a follow up video about ram, more specifically using as a ramdrive and loading the windows pagefile sys onto it when it boots up and b4 shutdown it saves the pagefile back to the hard drive or sd card/usb stick. The reason is to help resurrect older pc's and give them a second life, storage being an issue due to the old size limitations and running various windows which max out the drive space and not leaving enough for an operating pagefile which can run from excess ram installed. Trying to find such info has proven very illusive and ur the master of pc's from their emergence in our world of tech. I really enjoy ur process of explaining things and no matter what what I thought I knew is not all there is to know and u add to the education of what i missed when I learnt about pc's. Thanks Chris for the channel.
I may indeed do a follow-up. A RAM drive video is indeed a nice idea. Noted!
@@ExplainingComputers thanks heaps chris, it has frustrated me to no end searching for ramdrive uses and how to's etc.
I recall teaching my "data processing" students how core memory worked. The X and Y address lines, the sense wire, the hysteresis loop, etc. When IC RAM came along how it worked was no longer in the text books. Apparently the authors decided we did not need to know or maybe they did not know how it worked. But old terms do not go away very fast. 50 years later memory dumps as still called "Core" dumps by lots of folks. Linux still has core man page and the memory dump file is named "core".
Great disciplined way of explaining, without missing and messing up of details
Regards am a fan of all your videos
Thanks. :)
I really enjoy watching your videos they're alway easy to understand and informative. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you, 🖖
Seasons greetings to you too! :) And to everybody here.
Great stuff as usual Chris. Seeing that ZX-81 brings back memories. I tell me kids about the mainframes I worked on in my younger days and how much more powerful their phones are than those machines that took up entire rooms. It's amazing how much computing technology has improved.
Thank you for this. My favorite part is when you say: "Late Nineties, Early Nought-ie"... LOL I have never heard that before (being from Canada) it's just not (or should I say 'nought') what we say... Brought a smile to my face that the Millennium was naughty... I mean Nought-ie. Thanks again for this video! Very helpful.
It's been 3yrs since I started watching your videos :) I just wanna say, Thank you!
Thanks for watching for so long, appreciated. :)
How can he always look the same in all his videos ? Allways very good at explaining stuff.
Your videos always help me understand fuzzy concepts of computing. Nice job. Greetings from Argentina.
Hello from the UK! :)
You explained it very well sir.
Thanks.
This channel is amazing, such clarity and patience in the explanations/summary
Wonderful video - well covered information, concise & very organized. Thank you! (But I miss an appearance of Mr. Sissors!)
What a fantastic video. Everything from the history of RAM to decoding today's standards all in less than 13 minutes!
Super presentation
+ExplainingComputers / Christopher
Yet again another great video that successfully attempts to explain about computer hardware.
Keep up the good work!
Thanks Mark.
For the next time going in-depth on timings would be interesting. For Ryzen it is rather important to sharpen the timings as much as possible because in essence you use two CPU's on one package. When data has to go from the cache on one CCX to the other you have extra latency, the sharper the timings and the higher the speed the less that latency.
Your videos calm the curious part of my brain
Don't forget that the Z80 had a plug in module to expand the ram to a massive 64K. I think mine is stuffed in a drawer somewhere as an exhibit of our past suffrage. Today's young people fail to appreciate what we went through then so they can have their Androids.....
Ya got that right. Scientist invented the Internet. But, Porn made it a service we now can't live without.
Yeah...unless some of these "young people" end up coding in Assembly PIC, MPS430 and Atmel microcontrollers or for the heck of it try to code for devices using older known processors (Zilog Z80, MOS 6502, Motorola 68000, ect.) or different architectures (like MIPS).
Suffrage? What has politics got to do with computers?
I think you mean "suffering", it has a completely different meaning.
Sufferage: a series of prayers
@@Robb403 but you put "suffrage"... Which is not the same thing. It was just a silly joke on my part, don't worry about it 😉
Another great video! It made me search for the growth of ram capacity in PCs since 1982. By my estimates, at current growth rates, by around 2024 maximum capacity will be 1TB in PCs (think of threadripper like pcs). And it will not be until around 2042 that we will see a 1Petabyte RAM PC.
Nicely explained video. But, you overlooked explaining why there are so many more connections (pins) on the DIMM versus the SIMM.
ie. That the original 30 pin SIMM was only an 8 bit memory module (or 9 bit with parity), with 72 pin SIMM moving to 32 bits. The DIMM then being a 64 bit memory module. In addition, each generation having more address lines (the 30 pin SIMM maxing out at 16MB).
Memory modules didn’t really came about to solve “chip creep”, as you suggest. It was simply that the 1 bit wide DRAM’s chips of the time (eg. 41256 chips - 256K x 1 DRAM, following on from earlier 4116 / 4164 DRAM etc.) always required identical system PCB layout of 8 parallel wired chips, with each chip delivering 1 bit of the required byte from each address.
Therefore, putting 8 chips onto a byte-wide SIP or SIMM was simply a logical "common memory layout" design convenience evolution. :)
I "overlooked" on purpose -- there was already an information overload in this video. :) I checked "chip creep" (like everything else in this video) from several sources, but totally take your point on the layout issue. Ultimately, any video like this is far more an issue of what to leave out as much as what to leave in. Some early drafts of the script her ran over 40 minutes, nd ultimately whatever I included or did not include here I could not please everybody.The purpose of the intro (history) sections was to provide context and engagement with content less dry than the tech/specs that follow. And this is why I did not get into the while 8/16/32/64 bit thing.
@@ExplainingComputers No need to explain, of course. I do take your point about information overload! :)
An excellent and nicely explained video in any case. I always look forward to your videos. Keep up the awesome work!
I've been watching this channel for years. I always find his voice oddly satisfying.
Brilliant
Great all your videos. Useful with a lot of knowledge. But we were waiting from you videos longer than 15-20 minutes. Hope in the future.
😮😮😮😮😮
Like Always Wonderful Work 😄😄😄😄
Fantastic refresher!
Please go on!
Thank you for calling it RAM
Rant below:
instead of using the vague term "memory" that people like to use, which is bad. if you're talking about a computer and you mention your RAM there's only one thing it can be if you talk about your computer and you mention a hard drive there's only one thing it can be but if you talk about having a problem with your computer memory then nobody knows what you're talking about because it could be either, it's very annoying when I talk about computers with other people that aren't as educated about the terminology.
Cool video.
Fun Fact: Before RAM was reliable in a portable platform the USAF used a very long piece of coiled wire to "store" bits of data for the F-86's fire control system. Due to the limits of the speed of light the pulses would be delayed before emerging on the other end and be used to calculate bullet trajectories. The fighter was used during the Korean War over the same country where two of the three big RAM manufacturers are located: Samsung, SK Hynix, and (Micron in the US).
Before core there was delay memory and Williams tubes.
Wasn't that the memory that used actual Mercury as it's storage medium?
Even my 486 with it's SIMMs was more convenient, by several orders of magnitude
In 1968 I worked in a place with an emergency generator. Each wednesday they tested the emergency generator and the mercury delay lines "forgot" what they knew. Each one had to be reloaded. The same thing happened when they switched the generator off after the test.
please do a part 2. all of this information I already knew, but some of the listed information you didn't cover, I don't. It would be extremely helpful, and I think, to some, enjoyable to learn more. You are a great teacher!
downside of expansive RAM is bloatware encouragement :-(
ah, the days of iAPX86 programming ...
That was my first thought.
"Terabytes of RAM will let Microsoft program windows even worse"
Professional informative and never tedious. Puts it over very well indeed.
9:20 The 'Peak Transfer Rate' of PC4-25600 = 29500 MB/s? I think that's a typo 😁
A typo indeed. I was messaged earlier. I am kicking myself! :)
@@ExplainingComputers No problem though, the video is still great 🏆
Helpful and clear information, as well as enjoyable to watch.
High end motherboards have supported triple and even quad channel memory for some years now (since i7 LGA 1366), I guess it hasn't become mainstream because you need more memory & memory sockets which costs more. Since memory gets faster anyway the speed advantage is soon eroded.
Memory latency is an issue worth mentioning, it gets worse with each generation such that the first modules of each generarion are often slower for random access than the last modules of the previous generation.
Q: do DRAM cells fail individually like SSDs? Can memory controllers map out bad RAM?
Latency gets not worse.
Generally yes, but between generations there is often a retrograde period where the previous generation outperforms the first available memory of the next generation.
Outstanding, I really enjoyed how all the components types are actually showed on screen, thank you for great content!
Thanks for watching. :)
Love it..
From 1998 until 2000, I worked at a PCB factory that used the following:
One of the first transistor based compouters built in 1973, which had a whooping 32 KBs of magnetic core RAM (Used for controlling a CNC drill). Data input for this computer was done by paper tape but...
... we also used an XT-8088 PC with a custom designed interface for the aforementioned 1973 computer to allow uploads of files from 5.25 inch floppies. It also had an amazing 10 Megabyte MFM hard drive for the OS.
The magnetic core RAM was especially interesting as it was also non-volatile, so programs would remain in memory even if the power was turned off and modules removed.
Good times...