Building Embedded Systems: Programmable Hardware

© Changyi Gu 2016

Changyi Gu, Building Embedded Systems, 10.1007/978-1-4842-1919-5_4

4. RAM, DMA, and Interrupt

Changyi Gu¹ 

(1)San Diego, California, USA

Yeah, Jesus tried to save me, but there was no space left on his memory card.

—Computer Joke found online by arucardegungrave

Most embedded systems have some sort of memory that can be accessed randomly. There are many types of RAM (random access memory) in this world. Each has a different interface and electrical characteristics. RAM is the main place to store code and exchange data with the CPU core. The throughput of memory has a serious impact on the overall performance. Meanwhile, the use of virtual address vs. physical address in modern OS has made things more complicated for memory access. ...