Workstations and powerful desktop systems are typically designed for engineering applications that require large memory content and fast CISC or RISC processors. The key difference between a workstation and a PC is that a PC is a general-purpose machine designed for a broad range of tasks, while a workstation is designed for specific applications. Generally, workstations feature powerful graphics capabilities that require high DRAM capacity. High memory content is important to ensure balance between application, data, and OS requirements. For example, large memory capacity enables a user to work interactively with a fast preview of a movie frame or large model. A typical 2-channel system would have four memory sockets per channel, supporting from 4GB to 8GB of DRAM. Workstations typically support error correction coding (ECC), which provides protection against soft errors that could lead to process and application failures. High-end workstations also support registered DDR SDRAM to ensure higher accuracy in data transfers from memory by buffering the clock signals. Netlist offers a family of RDIMMs and UDIMMs (registered and unbuffered DIMMs respectively) in 1-4GB densities that meet the stringent performance requirements of high-end workstations. Netlist’s proprietary board design minimizes signal reflections, clock skews, crosstalk, and signal distortion, allowing 400MHz operation. Stacking of packages is avoided to provide a more thermally efficient module.
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