This read-only value is a simple index identifying which DRAM area a row of DRAM information describes, distinguishing the packet-buffers area from the cpu-dram area. An admin uses it to tell apart the switch's packet-buffer memory bank from its CPU working memory when reading related DRAM size, type, and speed objects. For example, index 1 (packet-buffers) would be checked when investigating packet buffer exhaustion, while index 2 (cpu-dram) would be checked when investigating general CPU memory issues.