Random-Access Memory has been crucial to the development of quick and cheap computers. Early machines used vast arrays of vacuum tubes to store their information. Today's RAM chips hold thousands of those tube-based memories on a single chip, instantly available to the microprocessor. However exciting the 'big closet' of a hard drive may be, a computer needs room to examine and sort through all the information in that closet. RAM provides a place for that, storing information between trips to permanent storage or obliteration. Its similar cousin, ROM, allows even faster access - but can be written only once.
This file created with Hypertype 2.2 by Simon St.Laurent