So I am getting ready to teach a class on PC hardware and I am having a bit of a conceptual issue. Given that CPUs are faster than memory, DDRx should make your RAM theoretically double the frequency, since it is sending data on the rising and falling edge of the clock. What happens if RAM is more than half of the CPU's clock frequency?
For example, CPU frequency is 3.5 GHz and RAM frequency is 2000 MHz (2 GHz). Now, RAM is transmitting data on the rising and falling edges, but that would technically give it a clock frequency of 4 GHz (or at least, it is sending data 4 billion times every second) and the CPU should not be able to keep up with that. How does this work? Where is my disconnect?
For example, CPU frequency is 3.5 GHz and RAM frequency is 2000 MHz (2 GHz). Now, RAM is transmitting data on the rising and falling edges, but that would technically give it a clock frequency of 4 GHz (or at least, it is sending data 4 billion times every second) and the CPU should not be able to keep up with that. How does this work? Where is my disconnect?