Definition
During the last two decades, there has been an exponential growth in the operational speed of microprocessors. Also RAM capacities have been improving at more than fifty percent per year. However the speed and access time of the memory have been improving at slower rate. In order to keep up in performance and reliability with processor technology it is necessary to make considerable improvements in the memory access time.

The Rambus founders emerged with a memory technology-RD RAM. RDRAM memory provides the highest bandwidth -2.1GB/sec. per pin- from the fewest pins at five-times the speed of industry available DRAM. The RDRAM memory channel achieves its high-speed operation through several innovative techniques including separate control and address buses, highly efficient protocol, low voltage signaling, and precise clocking to minimize skew between clock and data lines. A single RDRAM device is capable of transferring data at 1066Mb/sec. per-pin to Rambus-compatible ICs. Data rate per-pin will increase beyond 1066Mb/sec per pin in the future.