{"id":15042,"date":"2015-08-11T20:18:14","date_gmt":"2015-08-11T20:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rambus.com\/?p=15042"},"modified":"2019-02-06T14:15:19","modified_gmt":"2019-02-06T22:15:19","slug":"flexlink-ca-interface","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rambus.com\/flexlink-ca-interface\/","title":{"rendered":"FlexLink\u2122 C\/A Interface"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Traditional industry-standard memory architectures use wide, single-ended command\/address (C\/A) channels that operate at a considerably lower frequency than the data rate of the system. These wide, multi-drop interfaces require more pins and have greater power requirements. Given the pin and area requirements, scaling of wide busses becomes increasingly impractical. FlexLink\u2122 C\/A interface is a full-speed, differential, point-to-point C\/A interface technology that provides flexible access granularity and scalable capacity. Using this innovation, the C\/A channel can be implemented with as a little as two wires per DRAM device, reducing area, power, pin count, and overall system costs.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Provides capacity and access granularity scalability at reduced system costs<\/li>\n<li>Reduces area, power and pin count on DRAM and controller interfaces<\/li>\n<li>Enables memory system operation up to 20Gbps<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What is FlexLink C\/A Interface Technology?<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rambus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/FlexLink-CA.png\" alt=\"FlexLink\u2122 C\/A interface\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The industry\u2019s first full-speed, scalable point-to-point command\/address channel, FlexLink C\/A provides the command and address information to a DRAM using a single, differential high speed communications channel. Unlike wide, single-ended C\/A channels, narrow FlexLink C\/A channels operating at the full-speed of the data, provide a straightforward path for scaling of capacity and access granularity.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rambus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Example-Capacity-Scalability.png\" alt=\"Capacity scalability with FlexLink\u2122 C\/A interface\" \/><\/p>\n<p>An example is a memory system using four independent FlexLink C\/A channels and 32 data (DQ) links supporting 32-byte access granularity. Such a system can support one, two or four DRAM devices, allowing for scaling of capacity while maintaining system bandwidth and 32-byte access granularity. Similarly, the FlexLink C\/A interface supports scalable access granularity by increasing the number of C\/A links per DRAM. For example, a controller attached to a single DRAM through one, two or four independent C\/A channels and 32 DQ links would support 128-, 64- or 32-byte access granularity, respectively.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rambus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Example-Granularity-Scalability.png\" alt=\"Access granularity scalability with FlexLink\u2122 C\/A interface\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>Who Benefits?<\/h2>\n<p>FlexLink C\/A interface technology enables memory systems operating at up to 20Gbps and providing upwards of a terabyte per second of bandwidth. It minimizes the controller area and number of pins required to implement the C\/A channels. With lower pin counts, and lower voltages thanks to differential signaling, FlexLink C\/A reduces overall interface power and costs for DRAM and controller designers. Given the robust signaling characteristics of differential signaling, FlexLink C\/A increase system reliability. In addition, FlexLink C\/A provides designers great flexibility through a straightforward means to scale memory system capacity and access granularity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Traditional industry-standard memory architectures use wide, single-ended command\/address (C\/A) channels that operate at a considerably lower frequency than the data rate of the system. These wide, multi-drop interfaces require more pins and have greater power requirements. Given the pin and area requirements, scaling of wide busses becomes increasingly impractical. FlexLink\u2122 C\/A interface is a full-speed, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":15043,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[662,663],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15042","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rambus-inventions","8":"category-i-memory-interfaces","9":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.9 (Yoast SEO v26.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>FlexLink\u2122 C\/A Interface - Rambus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"FlexLink\u2122 C\/A interface is a full-speed, differential, point-to-point C\/A interface technology that provides flexible access granularity and scalable capacity.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rambus.com\/flexlink-ca-interface\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FlexLink\u2122 C\/A Interface\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Traditional industry-standard memory architectures use wide, single-ended command\/address (C\/A) channels that operate at a considerably lower frequency\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rambus.com\/flexlink-ca-interface\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rambus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RambusInc\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-08-11T20:18:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-02-06T22:15:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rambus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/FlexLink-CA-thumbnail.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"116\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"116\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"fongj@rambus.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@rambusinc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@rambusinc\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rambus.com\/flexlink-ca-interface\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rambus.com\/flexlink-ca-interface\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"fongj@rambus.com\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rambus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/37e2e7e0a04304c805d567b056b6282e\"},\"headline\":\"FlexLink\u2122 C\/A Interface\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-11T20:18:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-02-06T22:15:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rambus.com\/flexlink-ca-interface\/\"},\"wordCount\":395,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rambus.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rambus.com\/flexlink-ca-interface\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.rambus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/FlexLink-CA-thumbnail.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Inventions\",\"Memory + Interfaces\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rambus.com\/flexlink-ca-interface\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.rambus.com\/flexlink-ca-interface\/\",\"name\":\"FlexLink\u2122 C\/A Interface - 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