A registered memory module includes several memory devices coupled to a register
through a plurality of transmission lines forming a symmetrical tree topology.
The tree includes several branches each of which includes two transmission lines
coupled only at its ends to either another transmission line or one of the memory
devices. The branches are arranged in several layers of hierarchy, with the transmission
lines in branches having the same hierarchy having the same length. Each transmission
line preferably has a characteristic impedance that is half the characteristic
impedance of any pair of downstream transmission lines to which it is coupled to
provide impedance matching. A dedicated transmission line is used to couple an
additional memory device, which may or may not be an error checking memory device,
to the register.