Memory is the electronic holding
place for instructions and data that
your computer's microprocessor can
reach quickly.
When your computer is in normal
operation, its memory usually
contains the main parts of the
operating system and some or all of
the application programs and related
data that are being used. Memory is
often used as a shorter synonym for
random access memory (RAM).
This kind of memory is located on
one or more microchips that are
physically close to the
microprocessor in your computer.
Most desktop and notebook computers
sold today include at least 16
megabytes of RAM, and are
upgradeable to include more.
The more RAM you have, the less
frequently the computer has to
access instructions and data from
the more slowly accessed hard disk
form of storage.
Memory is sometimes distinguished
from storage, or the physical medium
that holds the much larger amounts
of data that won't fit into RAM and
may not be immediately needed there.
Storage devices include hard disks,
floppy disks, CD-ROM, and tape
backup systems.
The terms auxiliary storage,
auxiliary memory, and secondary
memory have also been used for this
kind of data repository.
Additional kinds of integrated and
quickly accessible memory are
read-only memory (ROM), programmable
ROM (PROM), and erasable
programmable ROM (EPROM).
These are used to keep special
programs and data, such as the basic
input/output system, that need to be
in your computer all the time.
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