What Is Memory?

Memory is like the human brain, but without the hassle of remembering anything. Memory is a tricky business, and it's not always something you can look at and tell what it does. In a basic sense, memory refers to any information or data that a machine or technology can recall and use, often in binary format. There are many different kinds of memory in conventional computers and other devices, and they differ based on the complex design of the hardware in which they're stored. But we're not here to talk about memory design. We're here because we want to know what memory means to you. Do you have a hard time remembering things? Is your memory so strong that you don't even need external devices like computers to store information. So, what kind of memories do you wish you had? We usually refer to volatile or non-volatile memory when discussing computer memory. Volatile memory is computer memory that will lose its contents if power is cut, such as DRAM. Non-volatile memory is computer memory that doesn't lose its contents if power is cut, such as flash memory. In computer programming, memory is often used to describe the working space available to a computer program or application. It might be RAM or another type of volatile computer memory or non-volatile computer memory such as flash or hard drive. In computer architecture, memory is often used to describe the location of computer hardware, such as CPU registers or the cache. Memory can be either external or internal to a computer system. You may think that RAM and generic storage memory are the same. If you're a computer, that's not even close to being the case. RAM is like a sponge, the kind of memory that holds on tightly to whatever it's been given and then releases it when you ask. It can't be overwritten or changed. It holds on and keeps holding on until you ask for something else. It's like a truck driver who only knows one route (but goes fast!). Generic storage memory? That's more like a post office box: put something in there, and it will sit there forever until you return for it later. Even then, there'll probably be another package waiting for you!