I have a suggestion and a question. The article makes numerous references to "memory initialization" but I didn't see anywhere where its explained what it means to "initialize" DRAM hardware. If I overlooked this I apologize.
My understanding has always been that initializing DRAM consisted of two things:
The BIOs had to enumerate how much physical memory that motherboard had installed. And then to test that that memory is working by writing a bit to each location and reading it back.
Would this be accurate?
Would also be worth noting that many BIOSes allow you to hit the space bar to skip memory initialization presumably because it somewhat time-consuming.
no you didn't overlook. the article doesn't discuss actual mechanics of DRAM init, so thank you for adding this info :) i know there is a process of memory training whose aim is to arrive at the right parameters for that DRAM. the way i see it, it is sort of in-field caliberation. boot firmware can then store those parameters inside BIOS chip and then on next reboot just use those parameters, because memory training is a time-consuming process.
My understanding has always been that initializing DRAM consisted of two things:
The BIOs had to enumerate how much physical memory that motherboard had installed. And then to test that that memory is working by writing a bit to each location and reading it back.
Would this be accurate?
Would also be worth noting that many BIOSes allow you to hit the space bar to skip memory initialization presumably because it somewhat time-consuming.