SIMM vs DIMM
Single In-line Memory modules and Dual In-line Memory Modules are basically just different ways of packaging the same silicon memory. The primary difference between these two types of modules is in the number of pins that they have. DIMMs have twice as many pins compared to comparable SIMMs. This might not seem likely at first since it is clearly visible that they have the same number of pins at each side, but closer inspection reveals that the connectors on either side are connected to each other in SIMMs. This is not the case with DIMMs.

The very apparent advantage of this is the much wider bus that a DIMM can utilize. DIMMs have a 64bit compared to the 32bit bus used by SIMMSs Wider bus means more data can pass through and this correlates to a faster overall performance since memory is essential in all computer operations. Achieving a 64bit bus is not exclusive to DIMMs since this capability has already been achieved with SIMMs via a neat little trick. The trick is to use two SIMMs in tandem, the resulting bus would be the sum of the two buses. The appearance of DIMMs have totally made this practice unnecessary.

DIMMs do not have backwards compatibility with SIMMs, therefore it is not possible to slowly simply upgrade the memory modules. Moving from SIMMs to DIMMs required a replacement of the motherboard which could sometimes mean the replacement of the processor. This is why the change to DIMMs isn’t very quick, most people opted to switch to DIMM when they needed to upgrade or replace their computers.

DIMMs have replaced all SIMMs in computers today and the only place that you would probably see SIMMs would be at computer museums. DIMMs have become so dominant that it is no longer necessary to identify whether the memory module is a DIMM. There is no replacement to DIMMs at the moment and it is expected that memory modules would still be manufactured as DIMMs in the foreseeable future.

Summary:
1. The SIMMs pins on either side are connected to each other while DIMM pins are independent
2. DIMMs provide a 64 bitchannel which is twice of the 32bit channel of SIMMs
3. DIMMs eliminated the practice of pairing two SIMMs as one
4. DIMMs are not backwards compatible with SIMMs just like all other memory modules
5. DIMMs are the replacement technology for SIMMs

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