DDR3 Write Leveling and Read Leveling

DDR3 Write and Read Leveling is to allow some mechanism for the memory controller to adjust
internal DQS to compensate for unbalanced loading on the board for write and read operations.
This will not compensate on a per bit basis, only on a byte or DQS basis.

DDR3 Write Leveling

With DDR3 the memory signals can be allowed to driven to each bank of memory or DIMM on
a fly-by basis. This allows for easier routing on the board and single termination. Below, you
can see that the CMD/ADDR/CLK drive every memory device. Whereas, the DQ/DQM/DQS
drive “each” memory device. This means the CMD/ADDR/CLK are more heavily loaded than
the DQ/DQM/DQS and arrive later at the destination device. See below for the rough timing
diagram.
DDR3 Write Leveling and Read Leveling
To compensate for this mismatched loading on the write cycle, the memory controller outputs a
special command to the DDR3 memory devices to put it into a special write leveling state. See
below for MR1 register definition and write leveling bit.

Basically, the DQS will be used to repeatedly delayed in small increments by the memory
controller and sample the CLK until the rising edge of CLK is detected. During this protocol,
each set of DQ (8 bits) is output with a “0” until the rising edge is detected by the DQS at which
time the DQ will be output with a “1”. The memory controller will detect these “1” on the DQ
bus and then knows the correct DQS compensation to align the DQS and CLK on the write path.
Once all DQS have been adjusted, these compensation values will be stored for each DQS for
future usage. Then the memory controller sends another MRS command to exit the write level
mode.
DDR3 Write Leveling and Read Leveling

DDR3 Read Leveling

As DDR3 Write Leveling manages the DQS/DQ on write data, the DDR3 Read Leveling
manages the DQS/DQ on read data. DDR3 Read Leveling is to compensate the imbalanced
loading on the read path. First the memory controller puts the DDR3 memory devices into a
special mode by writing to the MR3 register MPR bit. See MR3 defintion below for details of
the MR3 register. This puts the DDR3 memory devices into the read leveling mode which
outputs a stream of “01010101” in a burst length of 8 bits with a regular memory read command.
Imagine this as a read training sequence. The diagram below shows the MPR bypassing the
memory array to output the known data stream onto the DQ bus. Since the memory controller
knows that data stream is consistently outputting on the DQ bus, it will adjust the internal DQS
delay mechanisms on the read data path to create a proper window of the best capture window
for the DQ using DQS. Once these internal compensations are created for each DQS, the values
will be stored for future usage. And MR3 is set back to normal DDR3 operational mode.