Concept Of Memory

Whats In Name · 2010-08-20T18:17:07+00:00

Can Any one please explain me the concept of computer memory clearly,What I know is that - 😕RAM is for a volatile memory and only used for processing (current process) and our operating system is in RAM,then If RAM is volatile then how come our operating system remain there everytime we open our computers:?: 😕How are we able to start so many processes if our RAM is only of 128 MB:?: 😕ROM is nonvolatile and used for application programs or for storage purposes:neutral: 😕At the time of partition of computer memory(Formatiing time or windows insertion,rite?),Do we partition RAM or ROM or Both:?: I am confused,Please help😕

Concept Of Memory

Whats In Name

Member

Updated: Oct 26, 2024

Views: 1.1K

Can Any one please explain me the concept of computer memory clearly,What I know is that -

😕RAM is for a volatile memory and only used for processing (current process) and our operating system is in RAM,then If RAM is volatile then how come our operating system remain there everytime we open our computers:?:
😕How are we able to start so many processes if our RAM is only of 128 MB:?:
😕ROM is nonvolatile and used for application programs or for storage purposes:neutral:
😕At the time of partition of computer memory(Formatiing time or windows insertion,rite?),Do we partition RAM or ROM or Both:?:
I am confused,Please help😕

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Kaustubh Katdare

Administrator • Aug 20, 2010

Here are the answers -

1. Operating system actually resides on the HDD; not in the RAM.
2. To the best of my knowledge; if the RAM is overcapacity, it redirects the data to HDD.
3. ROM is used for storage - can store any digital data.
4. RAM / ROM cannot be partitioned. [ CEans, correct me if I'm wrong here 😀 ]

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anandkumarjha

Member • Aug 20, 2010

Rightly said by The_Big_K sir.The operating system which we have in our system actually resides at hard disk drive rather than in main memory. RAM is a volatile component i.e it works and give us all the informations according to the instructions given by us and contain all the system programming till the power is on,MARK MY WORDS (Till the power is on).the moment power is cut off it loses all its data.
If you have the memory which has less capicity then to it works nicely as virtual memory comes into play at that time.At the time of start of your computer memory loads all the operating systems and checks for its uses,if any software is not required at that point of time it sends it to the virtual memory and loads another program.
Up to my knowledge at the time of formatting you can't partition either RAM or ROM.
IF I AM WRONG THEN PLEASE LET ME KNOW

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Morningdot Hablu

Member • Aug 20, 2010

@The_Big_K Absolutely correct!!
@What Is Name Go with <a href="https://computer.howstuffworks.com/computer-memory.htm" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">How Computer Memory Works | HowStuffWorks</a> best one for basic knowledge of computer memories ...try to read this with starting and if you want to go in deep take help with #-Link-Snipped-# you must have to give some time.We have to read 2 to 3 subject on computer memory management in B.tech.So it can not be limited in just one thread.
.
Try to read yourself if any problem is there post here and have a discussion on it.

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Kaustubh Katdare

Administrator • Aug 20, 2010

Taking the discussion further; what'd we achieve by partitioning the ROM?

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sushant005

Member • Aug 20, 2010

Whats In Name
😕RAM is for a volatile memory and only used for processing (current process) and our operating system is in RAM,then If RAM is volatile then how come our operating system remain there everytime we open our computers:?:
Operating loads on HDD, you must have notice that while formatting it ask for the drive for loading the operating system in one of your partitioned drive(generally c drive) then how can you say that it stores in RAM.
And Ram is volatile as you said is very true it means when you power off your computer then all the stored information lost .So it never possible to load a operating system in RAM.
And basically RAM is very necessary to load your operating.When you open your PC first it POST and then the BIOS loads DOS and now DOS loads the operating system for all this process we need memory i.e why RAM is need to load operating system.And do practical also if you have PC(Desktop) in your house then try to open your PC without RAM , you must notice that your PC will not open even if HDD is attached .Try it it will give you beep sound it means that you must have some hardware problem.

Whats In Name
😕How are we able to start so many processes if our RAM is only of 128 MB:?:
For there is a concept called Virtual memory concept.If your RAM get overloaded then for further processing it uses the space of hard disk.

here is basic information about Virtual memory:-

virtual memory is the portion of HDD memory used by the operating system or Virtual Memory is a memory that uses a portion of HDD space as the memory to store the application data and instruction that the system demanded. Virtual Memory can be known as the logical memory, and it controls by the Operating System.
for more information you can read my blog:-#-Link-Snipped-#

Whats In Name
😕ROM is nonvolatile and used for application programs or for storage purposes:neutral:
Very true that ROM is non-volatile.Here the coding are written by the manufacture.
ROM is used to store program that do not need alteration.But there is ROM, EPROM called as Erasable Programmable ROM in which all the information stored can be erased by exposing it to ultraviolet rays.
and EE-PRROM called as Electrically Erasable programmable ROM it also can be erased by sending electrical signal.

Whats In Name
😕At the time of partition of computer memory(Formatiing time or windows insertion,rite?),Do we partition RAM or ROM or Both:?:
I am confused,Please help😕
Ya, i think it can not be partitioned.

Any doubt feel free to ask..

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krp31

Member • Aug 20, 2010

theres is no way the RAM or ROM can be partitioned. it makes no sense as RAM is volatile and ROM is not accessible by the user of the computer.

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anandkumarjha

Member • Aug 20, 2010

Sir upto what i know ROM can not be partitioned because it can not be accessed by the user phisically.
If i am wrong then please let me know

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Whats In Name

Member • Aug 21, 2010

Thanks everyone for helping me out..
So what we partition at the time of formatting is the hard disk,right?Ok,I got where in mind was the error..
So Operating system is in Hard disk and we need RAM for it to work..
Can any one please explain me the difference between ROM,secondary memory & the auxillary memory?😕;-)

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anandkumarjha

Member • Aug 21, 2010

Hello Whats In Name,
As asked by you the difference between ROM and secondary memory.
so what i think is ROM(read only memory) is a type of unchangable memory residing in thechips in your motherboard.It contains the bare simple instructions and informations which are needed to start your computer.The earlier verson of ROM :the data once saved inside the ROM could not be erased but then came the new verson of ROM(PROM)i.e programmable ROM,and EPROM(erasable PROM) data of which could be erased using ultravoilet rays , and finally came the EEPROM(elecrically erasable PROM).
Now coming to the secondary memory it is a kind of permanent storage where our operating system resides.we can save our importamt datas permanently.

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anandkumarjha

Member • Aug 21, 2010

If you want more details about these elements then go to
#-Link-Snipped-#

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Whats In Name

Member • Aug 21, 2010

Again Thanks alot 😀
All This was really helpful.

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sushant005

Member • Aug 21, 2010

RAM:-
Ram(Random Access memory) is called as the main memory of the system.
It is used for the read/write operation.
It is volatile in nature means that it is stored till power is off.When you shutdown your PC then the data stored in the RAM will be lost.
And the size of the RAM(how much ram needed for an operating system) it depends upon the version of the operating system. I mean to say that if you have 32- bit operating system then the max size of the RAM supported is 4GB.
If your RAM is overloaded then for the processing it takes the memory of HDD called as the virtual memory.

ROM

ROM(read only memory) is a non-volatile memory is the big difference between RAM and ROM.
It means that the information stored in the ROM will remain stored in the ROM even if the powered is off.
As it is named suggest that it can be read only,which means that once the coding is done and stored in ROM,then it is permanent.
There are four types of ROM
1>ROM
2>PROM-programmable ROM
3>EPROM-Ersable programmable ROM
4>EEPROM-Electrically Erasable ROM.
From the above mentioned ROM ,We can erase the Coding/information stored in EPROM (by ultraviolet rays)and EEPROM.(electrical signals),but for ROM and PROM the information stored is permanent.

HDD(Hard Disk)

HDD is otherwise known as secondary device.
It has more capacity then the RAM and is also cheaper then the RAM.
You can store information your personal data permanently.

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bill190

Member • Aug 21, 2010

Perhaps if you read about the history of computers, then all this will make more sense. This is quite complex these days, so I can see where this would be hard to understand "why" you have this or that for memory!

The very first programmable computers had ram only!

You would power on the computer and set all the registers to 0.

Then you would enter 1's and 0's into the one line of memory, step the instruction one step, then enter the next line of code, and maybe enter 8 lines of programming total.

Then you would stick a paper tape into a paper tape reader. The paper tape would have "boot loader" programming on it.

Then you would run the 8 lines of programming you entered by pressing "run", then that would read the boot loader from the paper tape into ram memory.

Then you could run the boot loader program and this would read the operating system into ram memory from a disk drive or a tape drive.

When that was loaded, you could then use the computer for simple things.

Then later they came out with rom or read only memory. On this you could stick the 8 lines of programming to get the computer initialized and also the boot loader program.

So after rom was invented, you could then just turn on a computer and it would then load the operating system from the disk into ram memory. Then run.

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sushant005

Member • Aug 21, 2010

@bill: nice piece of information.

bill190
Then later they came out with rom or read only memory. On this you could stick the 8 lines of programming to get the computer initialized and also the boot loader program.

So after rom was invented, you could then just turn on a computer and it would then load the operating system from the disk into ram memory. Then run.
Yes very true ,when the system is turned on , the program in ROM initialize the hardware parameters and read sector of track 0.
if we consider the DOS(Disk operating system) is the 16-bit operating system, here in this case the boot loader loads IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS into the beginning location of the system memory(RAM) and passes the control to IO.SYS.

now what is IO.SYS?
the main work of this program is to communicate with the I/O devices when it receives command from the user's program.In simple sense it initialize the peripherals and passes the control to the MS-DOS.

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