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02                   COMPUTER MEMORY



















                                Your Aim

                                to learn about:

                                    l   Memory                 l   Measuring the Computer’s Memory




                 When you were a child, you were taught about alphabets and numbers. Do you
                 still  remember them? How? This is  because they 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
                   ROM
                                          also called non-volatile memory.


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