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 Error Detection And Correction (EDAC) Devices
 =============================================
 
+Main Concepts used at the EDAC subsystem
+----------------------------------------
+
+There are several things to be aware of that aren't at all obvious, like
+*sockets, *socket sets*, *banks*, *rows*, *chip-select rows*, *channels*,
+etc...
+
+These are some of the many terms that are thrown about that don't always
+mean what people think they mean (Inconceivable!).  In the interest of
+creating a common ground for discussion, terms and their definitions
+will be established.
+
+* Memory devices
+
+The individual DRAM chips on a memory stick.  These devices commonly
+output 4 and 8 bits each (x4, x8). Grouping several of these in parallel
+provides the number of bits that the memory controller expects:
+typically 72 bits, in order to provide 64 bits + 8 bits of ECC data.
+
+* Memory Stick
+
+A printed circuit board that aggregates multiple memory devices in
+parallel.  In general, this is the Field Replaceable Unit (FRU) which
+gets replaced, in the case of excessive errors. Most often it is also
+called DIMM (Dual Inline Memory Module).
+
+* Memory Socket
+
+A physical connector on the motherboard that accepts a single memory
+stick. Also called as "slot" on several datasheets.
+
+* Channel
+
+A memory controller channel, responsible to communicate with a group of
+DIMMs. Each channel has its own independent control (command) and data
+bus, and can be used independently or grouped with other channels.
+
+* Branch
+
+It is typically the highest hierarchy on a Fully-Buffered DIMM memory
+controller. Typically, it contains two channels. Two channels at the
+same branch can be used in single mode or in lockstep mode. When
+lockstep is enabled, the cacheline is doubled, but it generally brings
+some performance penalty. Also, it is generally not possible to point to
+just one memory stick when an error occurs, as the error correction code
+is calculated using two DIMMs instead of one. Due to that, it is capable
+of correcting more errors than on single mode.
+
+* Single-channel
+
+The data accessed by the memory controller is contained into one dimm
+only. E. g. if the data is 64 bits-wide, the data flows to the CPU using
+one 64 bits parallel access. Typically used with SDR, DDR, DDR2 and DDR3
+memories. FB-DIMM and RAMBUS use a different concept for channel, so
+this concept doesn't apply there.
+
+* Double-channel
+
+The data size accessed by the memory controller is interlaced into two
+dimms, accessed at the same time. E. g. if the DIMM is 64 bits-wide (72
+bits with ECC), the data flows to the CPU using a 128 bits parallel
+access.
+
+* Chip-select row
+
+This is the name of the DRAM signal used to select the DRAM ranks to be
+accessed. Common chip-select rows for single channel are 64 bits, for
+dual channel 128 bits. It may not be visible by the memory controller,
+as some DIMM types have a memory buffer that can hide direct access to
+it from the Memory Controller.
+
+* Single-Ranked stick
+
+A Single-ranked stick has 1 chip-select row of memory. Motherboards
+commonly drive two chip-select pins to a memory stick. A single-ranked
+stick, will occupy only one of those rows. The other will be unused.
+
+.. _doubleranked:
+
+* Double-Ranked stick
+
+A double-ranked stick has two chip-select rows which access different
+sets of memory devices.  The two rows cannot be accessed concurrently.
+
+* Double-sided stick
+
+**DEPRECATED TERM**, see :ref:`Double-Ranked stick <doubleranked>`.
+
+A double-sided stick has two chip-select rows which access different sets
+of memory devices. The two rows cannot be accessed concurrently.
+"Double-sided" is irrespective of the memory devices being mounted on
+both sides of the memory stick.
+
+* Socket set
+
+All of the memory sticks that are required for a single memory access or
+all of the memory sticks spanned by a chip-select row.  A single socket
+set has two chip-select rows and if double-sided sticks are used these
+will occupy those chip-select rows.
+
+* Bank
+
+This term is avoided because it is unclear when needing to distinguish
+between chip-select rows and socket sets.
+
+
 Memory Controllers
 ------------------