The Professional S3 ships with 2GB of top-tier RAM - expandable to 8GB. RAM [Random Access Memory] is critical to the smooth and efficient operation of any computer. The S3 uses only top-tier DDR800 RAM to ensure that this cornerstone of your computing experience leaves you with nothing to worry about.

Top Tier? What is that?

All RAM chips are not created equal. Very few companies actually make memory chips but several hundred sell memory modules [DRAM chips attached to a circuit board]. The top tier suppliers manufacture the entire module and place the DRAM chips under a severe battery of tests that include extremities in temperature. Chips are graded based on their performance. The ones that come in top-of-class go into memory modules from top-tier suppliers.

What happens to the ones that marginally fail? They are often thrown out, but some are re-tested and graded for lower speeds. Sometimes they are sold to third party vendors who re-brand the memory with their own names. This "generic memory" will save you a few dollars and likely work today when installed in your computer, but it is prone to failure over the long term because of fundamental flaws that existed from the beginning.

How much RAM does the S3 come with?

The Professional S3 comes with 2GB of top-tier, industry leading DDR800 RAM. You can expand this to 8GB, which is useful for customers with software samplers, doing large projects with high definition audio [24Bit/192KHz] or running multiple applications, e.g. under Rewire. We chose DDR800 RAM because it is the best performing RAM for today's demanding music applications

What is DDR2 RAM?

Data is transferred from RAM between 3 components: the Memory Cell Array, the I/O Buffers and Power Regeneration Circuits. In SDRAM, all three components operate at the same frequency, thus the term 'Synchronous.' DDR RAM stands for Double Data Rate RAM. DDR RAM is like SDRAM only twice as fast. It achieves this speed breakthrough by outputting data on the rising and falling edges of the clock cycle in data transmissions between the I/O Buffers and the Power Regeneration Circuits. DDR RAM is noticeably faster than SDRAM and today SDRAM is obsolete.

DDR2 builds on the foundations of DDR RAM by employing the same Double Data Rate for transmissions between the Memory Cell Array and the I/O Buffers. This results in a doubling of the effective frequency of the RAM and a dramatice speed increase. DDR2 RAM is the current state-of-the art in RAM technology and this is the type of RAM installed in the M4.

DDR TYPE	PC NAME	Motherboard FSB	Single-Channel Mode DDR Bandwidth	Dual-Channel Mode DDR Bandwidth
DDR-266	PC 2100	133 MHz	2,100 MB/s	4,200 MB/s
DDR-333	PC 2700	166 MHz	2,700 MB/s	5,400 MB/s
DDR-400	PC 3200	200 MHz	3,200 MB/s	6,400 MB/s
DDR-533	PC 4200	266 MHz	4,200 MB/s	8,400 MB/s
DDR2 RAM
DDR2-400	PC2-3200	200 MHz	3,200 MB/s	6,400 MB/s
DDR2-533	PC2-4300	266 MHz	4,266 MB/s	8,533 MB/s
DDR2-667	PC2-5300	333 MHz	5,333 MB/s	10,666 MB/s
DDR2-800	PC2-6400	400 MHz	6,400 MB/s	12,800 MB/s

When you combine 2GB top-tier DDR2 800 RAM with the Professional S3's 1066 MHz front side bus, the result is very fast, very reliable operation.