ROM

Read-Only Memory is what makes the Macintosh I'm typing on tick. Most of what makes this machine a Mac is permanently inscribed on chips inside the machine, and can never be changed -Êjust patched through software in RAM. ROM is a good place for computer designers to put things that will never need to be changed, and is cheap to produce. For databases, however, it's fairly useless unless data is perfectly static. CD-ROM is static, but convenient for its transportability and the low cost of its manufacture. The CD loses the speed of the chip, but gains in transportability. Chips are a good place to put a factory, disks are a good place to put the raw materials.