Note that modern RAM protocols assume that multiple bits are in the transmission line that is the wires connecting your CPU to RAM. Electrical Engineers since

Note that modern RAM protocols assume that multiple bits are in the transmission line that is the wires connecting your CPU to RAM. Electrical Engineers since at least DDR2, probably earlier, need to ensure that all lines are delay matched to about 100picoseconds. That is, in DDR2, if DataBit#1 takes 1.1nanoseconds from start-of-wire to end-of-wire, then all other bits must be somewhere between 1.0ns to 1.2ns in length. This requires impedance controlled pcbs from the manufacturer, and length tracking software for PCB design. (Note: advanced PCB CAD software will even recalculate the speed of light across different lengths, as "inner" tracks have more dielectric surrounding them, slowing down electricity's speed, while "outer" tracks are a bit faster) ------- The dielectric of FR4 (the glass/resin used to make PCBs) is what determines the speed of light of the copper actually. And it can be 3.6 or 4.2 or whatever, but the PCB manufacturer will tell you in the PCB specsheets. Copper guides the wave, but the actual wave travels in the dielectric / insulation between the wires (FR4 in modern PCBs, but if you had open-air wire the dielectric would be the open-air surrounding the wires that form the ground-loop return path). There's been a huge amount of improvements to the understanding of electricity in the past 3 decades, and the old circuit models (sometimes still taught today) are kind of obsolete btw. ------- I think I heard that DDR4 is now 10picosecomds (10x more accuracy in delay matching), which is doable with modern CAD and PCB software. I dunno the delay requirements of DDR5. ------------------ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmission_line https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmission_line Anyway, look through this Wikipedia on Transmission Line theory, which is a closer model to how electricity "actually" works (but still isn't perfect). But its the level you need to think of electricity to understand modern CPU-to-RAM connections. In particular, DDR2 / DDR3 / DDR4 / DDR5 connections are almost certainly either Microstrip or Stripline connections, with a fair amount of PCB / Electrical Engineering going into the design to make sure everything works as expected.