- This is the Main memory of the computer.
- Is a volatile memory, which means that the stored information is lost when there is no power.
- The System software, application software and other data that are needed to do any task by the CPU are temporary stores in the RAM.
- The CPU can directly access to any part the contents of RAM.
There’s no any order to access the data on the RAM, Data in the RAM can be accessed randomly. That’s why it is called as Random Access Memory. - RAM is Read and Write Memory.
Why RAM is so important?
The System software, application software and other data that are needed to do any task by the CPU are temporary stores in the RAM. So that RAM is essential.
Without it computer can’t booting up. So every computing device should have a RAM.
There are two types of RAM
- DRAM – Dynamic Random Access Memory
- SRAM – Static Random Access Memory
- SDRAM – Synchronous DRAM
DRAM – Dynamic Random Access Memory
- Most commonly use RAM type is DRAM
- Any Data in DRAM are continuously refreshing/periodic refreshing. Due to this requirement the DRAM is comparatively much slower than SRAM. This is a drawback of DRAM.
- So that the data stored in this type of memory refreshing millions of times per second
- DRAM are high in data density. Therefore this memory is more suitable for RAM.
- The advantage of DRAM is less cost
SRAM – Static Random Access Memory
- Here the word static means, the memory does not require refreshing to keep data.
- SRAM are less in data density. So the electricity usage is very less, when it’s not in use. Therefore SRAM is used for the cache memory.
- Registers are also made of SRAMs
- So that SRAM is faster than DRAM (because main reason is its technology and No refresh and no need to write after every read)
SDRAM – Synchronous DRAM
- It is a type of memory that synchronizes itself with the computer’s system clock
