What is computer RAM
RAM may also be called “Memory” and it is measured in Megabytes (or MB).
RAM comes in the form of computer chips. These chips plug into special connectors in your computer. The purpose of these chips is to provide fast storage for the computer to use.
When the computer loads your file from your hard drive – where does that information go? It makes a copy of the information from the hard drive and places it in RAM.
Why? For speed. Information in RAM is stored based on electrical signals… so to change information simply requires sending a different electrical signal to the chip. This happens very quickly. Remember, the hard drive is a physical object that is spinning. It takes time to start it spinning, and move the hard drive “head” to the right position.
Let’s say you are typing in a Term Paper in your Word Processor. Every key you press on the keyboard becomes part of your Term Paper. You don’t realize it but, every letter you press has to be remembered by the computer. It accomplishes this by saving those keys in RAM. It happens so quickly, you don’t even notice it.
So it’s fast… but what happens when you turn off your computer? All the information is lost since the electrical signals storing the information have been turned off.
Advantages:
Fast
Disavantages:
“Forgets” when you turn the computer off
More expensive than hard drive storage.
Tags: computer hardware, ram
