Typically, an electrical system includes a number of circuits that communicate with one another to perform system applications. Often, the electrical system includes one or more controllers, such as a micro-processor, and one or more memory devices, such as a random access memory (RAM) device. The controller communicates with the memory to store data and to read the stored data.
The RAM can be any suitable type of RAM, such as single data rate synchronous dynamic RAM (SDR-SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR-SDRAM), and graphics double data rate synchronous graphics RAM (GDDR-SGRAM). Also, the RAM can be any suitable generation of memory, including double data rate two SDRAM (DDR2-SDRAM) and higher generations of RAM. Usually, each new generation of RAM is faster and includes different features.
Customers choose the RAM they need based on characteristics such as data rate, memory size, and data burst length. The data burst length is the amount of data transferred during memory read and write operations. Some systems use memory architectures that need shorter burst lengths, while others need longer burst lengths.
Fluctuating customer demands make it difficult to predict which data rates, memory sizes, and data burst lengths will result in the largest profit to the manufacturer. Manufacturers provide an ever increasing variety of RAMs to the marketplace. RAMs are supplied in different data rates, memory sizes, and data burst lengths to fit the ever increasing number and variety of system applications, such as mobile applications, graphics applications, personal computer applications, and server applications.
While some RAM suppliers have the resources to design many different RAM chips and offer the customer a wide variety of devices, other suppliers have a more limited amount of resources for creating a product portfolio and maximizing profits. A RAM device that includes multiple data burst length capabilities can fill the needs of a variety of customers and benefit customers via greater system design flexibility and economies of scale that result in lower costs.
For these and other reasons there is a need for the present invention.