Computational Hardware: Random Access Memory

Random access memory is the basic resource required for computing hardware. As the processor speed reaches the GHz clock frequency, memory throughput can become a high performance bottleneck. DRAM can provide a reasonable solution for this type of data storage. A typical computing system consists of multiple hardware modules that perform various operations on data. These modules try to access data at the same time. As a result, the memory controller issues necessary conditions to arbitrate and utilize the maximum throughput of requests queried from different modules.

Hardware memory management includes random access memory (RAM) and memory cache. RAM is a physical storage device on the system board. It is the main memory for the computer to read and write data. Memory caching increases the processing speed of the CPU by saving part of the data in main memory. If there is insufficient physical memory space, the memory management of the operating system uses the allocated space of the hard disk as memory. The free space of this hard disk is called virtual memory. (Figure 10) When requested by the program, the computer automatically completes this process. This allocation is done by the MMU based on the operating system and other applications. The virtual address space within the CPU contains a series of addresses divided into pages that allow the operating system to allocate space on the hard disk with the same size. (FIG. 12)

Random access memory (RAM) is one of the most important parts of the computer's internal computer and is memory in a randomly accessible computer because it is a random access memory. The memory bytes of our computer can be accessed without touching the leading byte. RAM is the most common type of memory on other devices such as computers and printers. There are two types of RAM. One is dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and the other is static random access memory (SRAM). These differ technologies for maintaining data. DRAM is a more general type. In terms of speed, SRAM is fast. DRAM needs to be refreshed several thousand times per second, SRAM is faster than DRAM because there is no need to refresh SRAM. DRAM supports an access time of about 60 nanoseconds and SRAM can provide a short access time of 10 nanoseconds.

Computer memory can be categorized into two types: volatile and nonvolatile. Volatile memory is a type of memory that requires power to maintain stored information. Semantic random access memory (SRAM) and dynamic random access memory (DRAM) are presently known as semiconductor volatile memory technology. Nonvolatile memory is a computer memory that holds stored information even when the power is turned off. Examples of non-volatile memory technology are most types of magnetic computer storage devices such as read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, hard disk, floppy disk, and magnetic tape.