Introduction
As you probably know, the computer design was inspired by the human body. We studied in previous tutorials about the processor and video card. The processor may be associated with how the human brain processes information and commands, and video card with the most important human sense the vision. Now we'll talk about another part: the laptop computer memory. Together with the CPU, laptop computer memory was present in the basic computer model appeared in the 40s. Similar to our memory, laptop computer memory holds necessary information for a certain period of time.
History
Laptop computer memory is of two types:
• Internal laptop computer memory: temporary storage data are in a computer
• External laptop computer memory: permanent data storage area (storage devices: Hard disk, flash, CD / DVD) the internal laptop computer memory contains both raw data to be processed and processing results, but this information is in most cases temporary. Memory can also function as a channel of communication between the microprocessor and peripheral devices.
Features
Internal laptop computer memory in terms of "volatility" is of two types:
• ROM (Read Only Memory) is a nonvolatile laptop computer memory (not loses it s content when you stop using your computer) can not be "written" by the user (being inscribed by the manufacturer with a special device), it has reduced capacity with up to 2 MB and it is used to store information about hardware and small programs that configure various devices. At startup, ROM checks information of the technical components, the type of motherboard, RAM size, hard disk type, and existing peripherals (keyboard, mouse, monitor)
• RAM (Random Access Memory) is a volatile memory (lost when the computer turns off), can be read and modified and is used to store programs and data, it is considered the main working memory of the computer.
Cache is a high-speed storage mechanism. This memory comes to fill the slow RAM response to the CPU requirements, storing for a limited time parts of programs or data most commonly used by the arithmetic-logic unit of the processor. The cache can be either a reserved section of main memory, or an independent device. Sometimes it is built in the microprocessor architecture (as seen in the Intel Pentium).
Tips and comments
The computer uses a binary counting system that uses only digits 0 and 1. This counting system is used in computing since all numbers can be represented as strings of electronic pulses turned on and off (0 means off, 1 means on).
The bit or binary digit is the smallest unit of data that can be represented and processed by computer. A sequence of 8 bits is called byte or octet. The data represented in memory occupies a sequence of bytes. The byte is the smallest unit of data that can be represented and addressed in a laptop computer memory. The byte is actually a character representation. By character we mean a letter, a digit, a punctuation mark or a graphic symbol represented in the laptop computer memory. The byte is the foundation of all the computer science known today.
