Raspberry Pi

How can we identify a RAM chip on the Raspberry Pi 4 device

The Raspberry Pi is a mini-computer board that contains RAM, a processor, and other peripheral device connections that are required by the personal computer. These boards were initially launched for the understanding of computer usage on the school teaching level but later on, these boards were used for different electronic projects.

The Raspberry Pi has launched different boards like Raspberry Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 4 which have different technical specifications. In this write-up, we will understand the methods to identify the RAM chip on the Raspberry Pi board.

What is RAM on Raspberry Pi board

RAM is a random access memory that is used to control the execution of all the tasks on the Raspberry Pi whether you are using the compiler to compile Python codes or you are playing games on the Raspberry Pi, the RAM is responsible for all the functionalities.

In the initial boards of the Raspberry Pi, the RAM was 256 MB and 512 MB but then Raspberry Pi 2 was released with the 1 GB RAM. The latest board of Raspberry Pi which is known as Raspberry Pi 4 is launched with 2, 4, and 8 GB RAM. The increased RAM helps in doing multiple tasks at the same time.

How to identify the RAM chip on the Raspberry Pi board

The RAM chip is located on the board and it is of different sizes like Raspberry Pi 4 contains 4 GB as well 8 GB size RAM. The chip of the RAM on the board of Raspberry Pi has an embedded code on it that tells the information about the RAM size. The codes embedded on the RAM chips are:

Embedded code Size
4HBMGCJ 1 GB
D9WHZ 2 GB
D9WHV 4 GB
D9ZCL 8 GB

We have a Raspberry Pi 4 board Model B. We have marked the RAM chip on it and also have a zoomed-in image of the chip which shows D9WHV is embedded in it which means it has a 4 GB memory size of RAM.

How to find the RAM size of Raspberry Pi from the terminal

You can find out the RAM size is by running simple commands from the terminal of the Raspberry Pi operating system. We can execute the command:

$ grep MemTotal /proc/meminfo

It will tell the total size of the memory which is 4 GB in our case, similarly, the other way to get information of the RAM is by running the command:

$ free -h

This will show a detailed report about the memory, total memory and the used memory of RAM by the Raspberry Pi 4.

Conclusion

The RAM is a random access memory where the data of a computer can be stored or the instructions that are to be executed. The Raspberry Pi is a compact size computer board that contains the RAM as well as processor along with the other components to manage the peripheral devices which are required by the computer. In this write-up, we have discussed the methods by which a Raspberry Pi user can identify the RAM chip on the Raspberry Pi board.

About the author

Hammad Zahid

I'm an Engineering graduate and my passion for IT has brought me to Linux. Now here I'm learning and sharing my knowledge with the world.