What is the difference between FPM and EDO memory?

Question

I have an IBM 730, P100 w/32M memory. I have been told that it uses FPM not EDO memery. What is the difference? Are they interchangeable? I want to upgrade my memory to 64M. Thank you.

Answer

This question was answered on September 22, 1999. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

The difference between these two DRAM types are thier speed and age of technology.

Fast Page Mode (FPM) memory runs at 40mhz for motherboards.

Extended data out (EDO) memory, the newer of the two, runs at 50 mhz.

Consumer tests have shown that the variance in speed is not very noticeable.

As for your question about interchangeability. It all depends on your motherboard. There are some motherboards that will let you do this but there are also others that won't. There is also an option of mixing the two which some motherboards will alow for too. To find out, look up your mainboard manual or contact IBM and ask them if your particular system can handle both types of memory.

Author

Posted by Ken of Data Doctors on September 22, 1999