Read-Around-Write

Common Options : Enabled, Disabled

 

Quick Review

This BIOS feature allows the processor to execute read commands out of order, as if they are independent from the write commands. It does this by using a Read-Around-Write buffer.

If this BIOS feature is enabled, all processor writes to memory are first accumulated in that buffer. This allows the processor to execute read commands without waiting for the write commands to be completed.

The buffer will then combine the writes and write them to memory as burst transfers. This reduces the number of writes to memory and boosts the processor’s write performance.

If this BIOS feature is disabled, the processor writes directly to the memory controller. This reduces the processor’s read performance.

Therefore, it is highly recommended that you enable the Read-Around-Write BIOS feature for better processor read and write performance.

 

Details

This BIOS feature allows the processor to execute read commands out of order, as if they are independent from the write commands. It does this by using a Read-Around-Write buffer.

If this BIOS feature is enabled, all processor writes to memory are first accumulated in that buffer. This allows the processor to execute read commands without waiting for the write commands to be completed.

The buffer will then combine the writes and write them to memory as burst transfers. This reduces the number of writes to memory and boosts the processor’s write performance.

Incidentally, until its contents have been written to memory, the Read-Around-Write buffer also serves as a cache of the data that it is storing. These tend to be the most up-to-date data since the processor has just written them to the buffer.

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Therefore, if the processor sends out a read command for data that is still in the Read-Around-Write buffer, the processor can read directly from the buffer instead. This greatly improves read performance because the processor bypasses the memory controller to access the data. The buffer is much closer logically, so reading from it will be much faster than reading from memory.

If this BIOS feature is disabled, the processor writes directly to the memory controller. All writes have to be completed before the processor can execute a read command. It also prevents the buffer from being used as a temporary cache of processor writes. This reduces the processor’s read performance.

Therefore, it is highly recommended that you enable the Read-Around-Write BIOS feature for better processor read and write performance.

 

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