What You Need To Know About Memory.

By Richard Akin

With regards to computer memory there are various types of memory that you can buy. Read Only Memory also otherwise known as ROM is used in computers and other various electronic devices. Random Access Memory which is also known by many as RAM refers to the data storage formats and equipment that allow the data to be accessed in any order.

Main memory contains the programs which are being run and also the data which the programs are operating on.

In modern computers electronic solid state RAM is used for main storage. This is directly connected to the CPU through a memory bus and data bus. The memory bus is also called an address bus or front side bus.

Access speeds and methods are 2 fundamental differencers between memory and mass storage devices.

Cache memory is an internal memory used by many central processing units to mainly to increase performance. It is known that some of the information in the main memory is duplicated in the cache memory. This is slower but has greater capacity than the processor registers. It is also faster despite being smaller that the main memory.

Multi level cache memory is also used. Primary cache is the smallest, fastest and closest to the processing device. The secondary cache is larger and slower, but still faster and smaller thna the main memory.

A semiconductor memory chip contains millions of transistors or capacitors. In todays computers primary storage consists of dynamic volatile semiconductor memory or dynamic random access memory. Thins have now changed as the flash memory has now become available and it is now common amongst many of us. This form or memory is less volatile and offers a greater degree of flexibility