Rank Interleave

Common Options : Enabled, Disabled

 

Quick Review

This BIOS feature is similar to SDRAM Bank Interleave. Interleaving allows banks of SDRAM to alternate their refresh and access cycles. One bank will undergo its refresh cycle while another is being accessed. This improves memory performance by masking the refresh cycles of each memory bank. The only difference is that Rank Interleave works between different physical banks or, as they are called now, ranks.

Since a minimum of two ranks are required for interleaving to be supported, double-sided memory modules are a must if you wish to enable this BIOS feature. Enabling Rank Interleave with single-sided memory modules will not result in any performance boost.

It is highly recommended that you enable Rank Interleave for better memory performance. You can also enable this BIOS feature if you are using a mixture of single- and double-sided memory modules. But if you are using only single-sided memory modules, it’s advisable to disable Rank Interleave.

 

Details

Rank is a new term used to differentiate physical banks on a particular memory module from internal banks within the memory chip. Single-sided memory modules have a single rank while double-sided memory modules have two ranks.

This BIOS feature is similar to SDRAM Bank Interleave. Interleaving allows banks of SDRAM to alternate their refresh and access cycles. One bank will undergo its refresh cycle while another is being accessed. This improves memory performance by masking the refresh cycles of each memory bank. The only difference is that Rank Interleave works between different physical banks or, as they are called now, ranks.

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Since a minimum of two ranks are required for interleaving to be supported, double-sided memory modules are a must if you wish to enable this BIOS feature. Enabling Rank Interleave with single-sided memory modules will not result in any performance boost.

Please note that Rank Interleave currently works only if you are using double-sided memory modules. Rank Interleave will not work with two or more single-sided memory modules. The interleaving ranks must be on the same memory module.

It is highly recommended that you enable Rank Interleave for better memory performance. You can also enable this BIOS feature if you are using a mixture of single- and double-sided memory modules. But if you are using only single-sided memory modules, it’s advisable to disable Rank Interleave.

 

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