Layout of Memory Chips

• To take advantage of the two-dimensional nature of the chip, storage elements are arranged on a square grid.
• Hence, there are columns and rows of storage elements.
• For example, a 1 Megabit RAM chip consists of 1024 rows and 1024 columns of storage elements.
• Each individual storage element can be identified by its row and column ``coordinates''.
• Hence, to select a particular storage location the address information must be translated into row and column specification.
• The address information is divided into two halfs; the top half is used to select the row and the bottom half is used to select the column.

  

Figure 3.14: 4-bit RAM