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Chapter Profile
                                                                                         Chapter Profile
                  2                                                                   Memory

                                                                                       Measuring the Computer’s Memory


                                   Computer


                                      Memory













                 When you were a child, you were taught about alphabet and numbers. Do you still remember
                 it? How? This is so 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.


                        MEMORY


                 The data and instructions that are entered into the computer using input devices are stored
                 inside the memory. There are two types of memory: Primary memory and Secondary
                 memory.

                 Primary Memory

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

                 on the motherboard of the computer. Primary memory is further divided into two types:
                 Random Access Memory (RAM) and 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’s  why  it  is  also called
                 volatile memory.
                                                                                                             RAM


                                          Read Only Memory (ROM)

                                          Information  stored in  ROM  is  permanent  in  nature,  i.e., it  holds
                                          the  data even  if  the  system is  switched  OFF.  It  holds  the  starting
                                          instructions that are required to start a computer. It is also called
                   ROM
                                          non-volatile memory.




                                                                                                  Computer Memory    13
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