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Computer memory stores information, such as data and programs, for immediate use in the computer. [2] The term memory is often synonymous with the terms RAM, main memory, or primary storage. Archaic synonyms for main memory include core (for magnetic core memory) and store. [3]
Drum memory was a magnetic data storage device invented by Gustav Tauschek in 1932 in Austria. [1] [2] Drums were widely used in the 1950s and into the 1960s as computer memory. Many early computers, called drum computers or drum machines, used drum memory as the main working memory of the computer. [3]
Paged allocation divides the computer's primary memory into fixed-size units called page frames, and the program's virtual address space into pages of the same size. The hardware memory management unit maps pages to frames. The physical memory can be allocated on a page basis while the address space appears contiguous.
1 GiB of SDRAM mounted in a computer.An example of primary storage. 15 GB PATA hard disk drive (HDD) from 1999. When connected to a computer it serves as secondary storage. 160 GB SDLT tape cartridge, an example of off-line storage.
The memory cell is the fundamental building block of computer memory. The memory cell is an electronic circuit that stores one bit of binary information and it must be set to store a logic 1 ( high voltage level) and reset to store a logic 0 (low voltage level).
(For example, if a computer has 2 GB (1024 3 B) of RAM and a 1 GB page file, the operating system has 3 GB total memory available to it.) When the system runs low on physical memory, it can " swap " portions of RAM to the paging file to make room for new data, as well as to read previously swapped information back into RAM.
The NCR 315-RMC, released in July 1965, was the first commercially available computer to employ thin-film memory.This reduced the clock cycle time to 800 nanoseconds.It also included floating-point logic to allow scientific calculations, while retaining the same instruction set as previous NCR 315 and NCR 315-100.
In a system using segmentation, computer memory addresses consist of a segment id and an offset within the segment. [3] A hardware memory management unit (MMU) is responsible for translating the segment and offset into a physical address, and for performing checks to make sure the translation can be done and that the reference to that segment and offset is permitted.