01Sep Memory

Memory in computers is basically an electronic circuit which has microscopic electronic switches that hold binary data. That is it shows if it is on or off. The ‘1’ describes that the switch is on and ‘0’ describes that the switch is off. The 0’s and 1’s are known as bits. A group of 8 bits is collectively known as Byte. A byte ranges from 0 to 255 in numeric form. Main memory in computers is often called memory sticks or RAM. The abbreviation RAM stands for Random Access Memory.

A person should consider following things while selecting his RAM module

• Type
• Speed
• Quantity (storage)
• Quality

There are various type of RAMS used in modern desktop computers. These include SDRAM, DDR SDRAM, RDRAM (Rambus Dynamic) etc. Even EDO RAM and EDO-burst RAM were also used in desktop computers. They were later discontinued due advancement in technology. Older processors like Pentium used EDO RAM and then transformed into new RAMS known as SDRAM, which stands for Synchronous Dynamic RAM. The SDRAM had max FSB of 133 MHz. But with the advent of Pentium 4 the front side bus was not enough to sustain the freq. with that of processor. The use of RDRAM was also restricted to certain motherboards like Intel850…Etc, as it was too costly for a home user. Hence the invention of DDR RAM took place, which stands for Dual Dynamic Rate RAM. This memory module was used for a long time until the era of DDR2 RAM came into act. In today’s world the use of DDR2 is so wide that the manufacturing of DDR modules has been discontinued.