Memory cells alone would be worthless without some way to get information in and out of them. So the memory cells have a whole support infrastructure of other specialized circuits. These circuits perform functions such as:
• Identifying each row and column (row address select and column address select)
• Keeping track of the refresh sequence (counter)
• Reading and restoring the signal from a cell (sense amplifier)
• Telling a cell whether it should take a charge or not (write enable)
Other functions of the memory controller include a series of tasks that include identifying the type, speed and amount of memory and checking for errors.
Static RAM works differently from DRAM. We'll look at how in the next section.