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Random Acces Memory

Random-access memory (RAM) is a type of electronic memory that allows data to be read and written in any order, primarily used for storing working data and machine code. It typically comes in volatile forms like SRAM and DRAM, with non-volatile options also available. The development of RAM dates back to the 1960s, evolving from earlier technologies like the Williams tube and magnetic-core memory to modern semiconductor solutions.

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4 views3 pages

Random Acces Memory

Random-access memory (RAM) is a type of electronic memory that allows data to be read and written in any order, primarily used for storing working data and machine code. It typically comes in volatile forms like SRAM and DRAM, with non-volatile options also available. The development of RAM dates back to the 1960s, evolving from earlier technologies like the Williams tube and magnetic-core memory to modern semiconductor solutions.

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gabriel68tanasescu
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Random-access memory (RAM; /ræm/) is a form of electronic computer

memory that can be read and changed in any order, typically used to store
working data and machine code.[1][2] A random-access memory device allows
data items to be read or written in almost the same amount of time
irrespective of the physical location of data inside the memory, in contrast
with other direct-access data storage media (such as hard disks and
magnetic tape), where the time required to read and write data items varies
significantly depending on their physical locations on the recording medium,
due to mechanical limitations such as media rotation speeds and arm
movement.

In today's technology, random-access memory takes the form of integrated


circuit (IC) chips with MOS (metal–oxide–semiconductor) memory cells. RAM
is normally associated with volatile types of memory where stored
information is lost if power is removed. The two main types of volatile
random-access semiconductor memory are static random-access memory
(SRAM) and dynamic random-access memory (DRAM).

Non-volatile RAM has also been developed[3] and other types of non-volatile
memories allow random access for read operations, but either do not allow
write operations or have other kinds of limitations. These include most types
of ROM and NOR flash memory.

The use of semiconductor RAM dates back to 1965 when IBM introduced the
monolithic (single-chip) 16-bit SP95 SRAM chip for their System/360 Model 95
computer, and Toshiba used bipolar DRAM memory cells for its 180-bit Toscal
BC-1411 electronic calculator, both based on bipolar transistors. While it
offered higher speeds than magnetic-core memory, bipolar DRAM could not
compete with the lower price of the then-dominant magnetic-core memory. [4]
In 1966, Dr. Robert Dennard invented modern DRAM architecture in which
there's a single MOS transistor per capacitor. [5] The first commercial DRAM IC
chip, the 1K Intel 1103, was introduced in October 1970. Synchronous
dynamic random-access memory (SDRAM) was reintroduced with the
Samsung KM48SL2000 chip in 1992.

History
These IBM tabulating machines from the mid-
1930s used mechanical counters to store information.

Early computers used relays, mechanical counters[6] or delay lines for main
memory functions. Ultrasonic delay lines were serial devices which could
only reproduce data in the order it was written. Drum memory could be
expanded at relatively low cost but efficient retrieval of memory items
requires knowledge of the physical layout of the drum to optimize speed.
Latches built out of triode vacuum tubes, and later, out of discrete
transistors, were used for smaller and faster memories such as registers.
Such registers were relatively large and too costly to use for large amounts
of data; generally only a few dozen or few hundred bits of such memory
could be provided.

The first practical form of random-access memory was the Williams tube. It
stored data as electrically charged spots on the face of a cathode-ray tube.
Since the electron beam of the CRT could read and write the spots on the
tube in any order, memory was random access. The capacity of the Williams
tube was a few hundred to around a thousand bits, but it was much smaller,
faster, and more power-efficient than using individual vacuum tube latches.
Developed at the University of Manchester in England, the Williams tube
provided the medium on which the first electronically stored program was
implemented in the Manchester Baby computer, which first successfully ran
a program on 21 June, 1948.[7] In fact, rather than the Williams tube memory
being designed for the Baby, the Baby was a testbed to demonstrate the
reliability of the memory.[8][9]

Magnetic-core memory was invented in 1947 and developed up until the


mid-1970s. It became a widespread form of random-access memory, relying
on an array of magnetized rings. By changing the sense of each ring's
magnetization, data could be stored with one bit stored per ring. Since every
ring had a combination of address wires to select and read or write it, access
to any memory location in any sequence was possible. Magnetic core
memory was the standard form of computer memory until displaced by
semiconductor memory in integrated circuits (ICs) during the early 1970s.[10]

Prior to the development of integrated read-only memory (ROM) circuits,


permanent (or read-only) random-access memory was often constructed
using diode matrices driven by address decoders, or specially wound core
rope memory planes.[citation needed]

Semiconductor memory appeared in the 1960s with bipolar memory, which


used bipolar transistors. Although it was faster, it could not compete with the
lower price of magnetic core memory.[11]

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