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The idea behind tmpfs is similar in concept to a RAM disk, in that both provide a file system stored in volatile memory; however, the implementations are different. While tmpfs is implemented at the logical file system layer, a RAM disk is implemented at the physical file system layer. In other words, a RAM disk is a virtual block device with a ...
RAM drives use normal system memory as if it were a partition on a physical hard drive rather than accessing the data bus normally used for secondary storage. Though RAM drives can often be supported directly in the operating system via special mechanisms in the OS kernel, it is generally simpler to access a RAM drive through a virtual device ...
Software can "partition" a portion of a computer's RAM, allowing it to act as a much faster hard drive that is called a RAM disk. A RAM disk loses the stored data when the computer is shut down, unless memory is arranged to have a standby battery source, or changes to the RAM disk are written out to a nonvolatile disk.
A RAM drive has much faster read and write access than a hard drive with rotating platters, and is volatile, being destroyed with its contents when a computer is shut down or crashes [1] —volatility is an advantage if security requires sensitive data to not be stored permanently, and to prevent accumulation of obsolete temporary data, but ...
Increasingly, memory-based solutions for the temporary directory or folder are being used, such as "RAM disks" set up in random-access memory or the shared-memory device /dev/shm in Linux. A Flash -based solid-state drive is less suitable as a temporary-storage device for reading and writing due to the asymmetric read/write duration and due to ...
zram, formerly called compcache, is a Linux kernel module for creating a compressed block device in RAM, i.e. a RAM disk with on-the-fly disk compression. The block device created with zram can then be used for swap or as general-purpose RAM disk. The two most common uses for zram are for the storage of temporary files (/tmp) and as a swap ...
While these types of drives hold much permanent information, RAM holds temporary, yet important, information for the computer to receive. While using very minimal programs such as a browser or having a couple of programs open, a RAM is working so that it can load up small tasks like these.
Digital computers, in particular, make use of two forms of memory known as RAM or ROM and although the most common form today is RAM, designed to retain data while the computer is powered on, this was not always the case. Nor is active memory the only form used; passive memory devices are now in common use in digital cameras.