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When you were a child, you were taught about alphabets and numbers. Do you still
remember them? How? This is because these were stored in your memory. Just like
human memory, computers also have memory to store all the data and instructions

for performing various tasks.

Data and Information

In your daily life, you come across a lot of facts and figures in the form of numbers,
images, etc. These are called data. You can say that a collection of raw and
unorganised facts is known as data. When this data is organised and given a specific

context, it becomes information.

Memory

The data and instructions that are entered into the computer using input devices are
to be stored in the memory. There are two types of memory:

1. Primary Memory 2. Secondary Memory

Primary Memory

This is the main memory of the computer. The CPU can directly access this memory.

It is fixed on the motherboard of the computer.
Primary memory is further divided into two types:

1. Random Access Memory (RAM) 2. Read Only Memory (ROM)

Random Access Memory (RAM)

RAM is a temporary memory. The information stored in this memory is lost when the

computer is turned off. That is why it is also called volatile memory. It stores data
and instructions given by the user and also the results produced by the computer
temporarily.

Types of RAM

1. Dynamic RAM (DRAM): It requires continuous power to refresh the data stored.

2. Static RAM (SRAM): It also requires constant power to hold on to data, but it
does not need to be continuously refreshed the way DRAM does.

However, SRAM is significantly faster and uses less power than DRAM.

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