DATA STORAGE
TYPES OF DATA STORAGE
• Primary Memory
• Secondary Storage
PRIMARY MEMORY
• Primary memory is the part of the computer memory which
can be accessed directly from the CPU
• This includes random access memory (RAM) and read only
memory (ROM)
• It can store user’s workspace, temporary data or data that is
key to running the computer.
COMPARISON
TYPES OF PRIMARY MEMORY
RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY
• When an application or program is run, data is retrieved from secondary
storage and placed temporarily into RAM.
• Access time is faster as compared to Secondary/ Offline Storage
• can be written to or read from, and the data can be changed by the user or
the computer (i.e. it is a temporary memory)
• used to store data, files, part of an application or part of the operating
system currently in use
• it is volatile, which means memory contents are lost when powering off the
computer
TYPES OF RAM
• DRAM
• SRAM
DRAM
• Each DRAM chip consists of transistors and
capacitors.
capacitor – this holds the bits of information
(0 or 1)
transistor – this acts like a switch; it allows
the chip control circuitry to read the capacitor
or change the capacitor’s value.
• This type of RAM needs to be constantly
refreshed
• DRAM is the most common type of RAM used
in computers,
ADVANTAGES
• DRAMs have a number of advantages over SRAMs:
» they are much less expensive to manufacture than SRAM
» they consume less power than SRAM
» they have a higher memory capacity than SRAM
SRAM
• Doesn’t need to be constantly refreshed.
• It makes use of flip flops, which hold each bit of memory.
• Much faster than DRAM when it comes to data access (typically,
access time for SRAM is 25nanoseconds and for DRAM is
60nanoseconds).
• In the CPU’s memory cache. Memory cache is a high-speed portion
of the memory; it is effective because most programs access the
same data or instructions many times.
DIFFERENCES
READ ONLY MEMORY
• They are non-volatile (the contents are not lost after powering off the
computer)
• They are permanent memories (the contents cannot be changed or
written to by the user, the computer or any application/program)
• The contents can only be read
• They are often used to store data that the computer needs to access
when powering up for the first time (the basic input/output system
(BIOS)); these are known as the start-up instructions (or bootstrap)
COMPARISON RAM ROM
RAM, ROM IN EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
