The X 86 Microprocessors: Architecture, Programming and Interfacing (8086 to Pentium) 2nd Edition by Pearson

SEMICONDUCTOR MEMORY DEVICES 12-5

What are the merits and de-merits of SRAM?

To achieve low levels of power consumptions, CMOS is typically used for SRAM tech-

nology. It uses less power than DRAM (which we will talk about soon), but at high

frequencies, it can also consume significant amounts of power. Because each cell needs

at least six transistors, SRAMs are more expensive and less dense compared to DRAMs.

Hence, they are not used as the primary (main) memory in personal computers. They are

as fast as typical CPUs because of using the same technology as the CPU and so find

more important use as ‘cache memory’ where speed is the deciding factor ...