Every computer has a memory by virtue of which it stores data. All data is in form of numbers. A computer stores a number into a specific location in its memory and later retrieves the value. Most computer memories store data in binary number form. In the binary number system, numbers are represented by sequences of the two binary digits 0 and 1, which are called bits.
In a computer, the two possible values of a bit correspond to the on and off states of the computer's electronic circuitry. The bits are grouped together in the memory in order for them to represent larger values. Eight bits make up a byte and this collection of bits can represent decimal numbers ranging from 0 to 255.
Memory is measured in term of capacity instead of speed. It is expressed in terms of kilobytes, megabytes, and gigabytes. Although the prefixes kilo-, mega-, and giga-, are taken from the metric system, they have a slightly different meaning when applied to computer memories.
The word computer memory is usually used for the data storage devises either the data storage in volatile form or in the non-volatile form. The data storage can be of many types like optical discs, hard drive , and there is also storage medium i.e RAM which is a solid state devise. The RAM computer memory is different in this aspect that it is not a permanent storage medium ,like the others storage mediums like hard drive or other magnetic storage mediums.The unit of speed of the primary storage medium, is measured in nanosecond and for the secondary storage medium, the unit of measurement is millisecond and for the tertiary storage medium the unit of measurement is second. There are almost and on the whole there are three types of storage medium. First is processor registers(registers are also the type of computer memory) this memory is within the CPU. Second is the cache memory ,this type of memory is used for the fast retrieval of data,via this memory the throughput of the data become faster . And third is last memory which is main memory, in this category the RAM resides and all the mass storage devises resides in this category.
A human being has a memory i.e. Brain to store and remember his daily activities. Similarly a computer has a memory to store various forms of data and computer related processes. A computer memory is in the form of semiconductor chip or permanent hard drives which store data in the form of electronic bits. A computer memory has two types i.e. RAM (Randam Access Memory) and ROM (Read Only Memory). RAM is used for temporary storage and is a volatile memory i.e. The data is erased when computer is shut down whereas ROM is a non-volatile memory i.e. Data is not erased when power is plugged off. RAM and ROM are plugged into the mother board of the computer however there are other storage devices available in the market as well. Secondary storage devices such as magnetic tapes, magnetic disks, floppy disks, hard disk and flash drives are widely used to store greater amount of data.
A MEMORY is an inner storage space area in the computer, the term memory identifies statistics storage that comes in the shape of chips, and the statement storage is used for memory that exists on tapes or disks. Furthermore, the term memory is typically used as shorthand for material memory, which refers to the real chips capable of holding data. Some computers also make use of virtual memory, which expands physical memory onto a hard disk.
Each computer comes with a definite amount of physical memory, usually referred to as main memory or RAM. You can feel of main memory as an array of boxes, each of which can clutch a single byte of information. A computer that has 1 megabyte of memory, therefore, can clutch about 1 million bytes (or characters) of information.
Memory Terminology Memory speed - calculated in nanoseconds, this is the time to entrance data that is stored in memory (2ns-80ns) Parity - A simple error examination way use in memory modification ECC-Error correction code apply in memory improvement Memory Banks - A socket where memory is installed Example 4 banks will have 8MB of recollection each for a sum of 32MB
Here memory refers to primary memory (RAM).Each program is first loaded into ram from secondary memory for execution & after execution it is sent back to primary memory to secondary memory after execution of it..secondary memory is your hard disk in which you kept copies of pages resides in main memory which is called backing store.thus main memory is required for each program's execution in computer system.
