What is RAM?

What is RAM in relation to computers? Well, essentially RAM is what gives our applications a place to store, and access data temporarily. Performances such as browsing the web, or even editing a spreadsheet, all use RAM. Programs and documents load from the storage drive, and is then sent to our system's processor. The processor's job is to transfer the data from our long term storage to our short term RAM memory storage, until we are ready to save to our storage drive again after updates are made.

The use of Random Access Memory, or "memory" for short, allows us to process our applications at quicker speeds. Instead of having to save all of our temporary operations for the long term, our computer can quickly access, remove, and/or store real time data to its memory. This is all done to increase the overall performance of our applications. No one likes a slow running application in 2024!

Being able to access and store memory through RAM has it's drawbacks as well. For one, since our processor has to "process" our data/functions in real time, it doesn't need to keep track of any older changes that were made for the long term. RAM is more focused on the current state of our application data. Thus causing RAM memory to be considered a volatile form of storage.

For example, If you've ever encountered a situation where you lost power on your computer, then odds are you've made the mistake of not saving your work before. You were probably under the assumption that you could leave your computer, handle your business, and come right back to where you left off. Although the use of RAM memory allows us to multitask and maintain sessions, remember it is not meant for long-term storage. So, not only is not saving your work still dangerous, but power outages(and more) are very real. With that said, we don't want to lose our beautiful application because we wanted to keep VSCode open 24/7. So, even though RAM is cool, again it is considered volatile. Meaning, your data has a higher risk of being lost under certain circumstances.

So how does data get stored for the long-term then you may ask? Well, whenever we are saving our work, we are saving it for the long-term on our computer's storage/hard drive. Hard-Drives are a form of external storage. They are designed to "keep" the data that really matters to us for the long road. It is also portable and can be transferred to other machines once you connect them. Keep in mind there are multiple forms of external drives as well, such as a flash drive for example.

Another good example I can think of in terms of maintaining data through external storage, would be playing a PlayStation 2. If you are old like myself, you might remember having to buy something called a "memory-card" to save your game data. Imagine having to play through an entire single-player game without turning your game off at any point? Assuming you don't have a memory card, you can't allow for the game to shut off. Ever. Otherwise, it's game over and you have to start all the way from scratch! There were many days where I would pause the game and leave it on all day to avoid losing progress. Little did I realize, that the pausing of the game itself was the game relying on its RAM memory to keep track of its current state. With that said, I've lost count of how many times people accidentally turned the game off in the middle of my progress back then! Oh the horror..

In regards to RAM on our computer, yes we are able to multitask with several windows open thanks to it. However, the efficiency and speed of those responses really depends on the amount of storage that we have access to in memory. If you think of it like a desk, the more storage, then the more space on our desk that we can use for handling tasks at once. Standard RAM memory size is typically 8gb. But they can range as high as 64gb and even higher!

In closing, RAM is considered to be a sort of X-factor in determining the speed of your operations, as well as multitasking. It also allows our data to persist if nothing major happens to cause a disruption to our current state. The more RAM, the better for your computer. If you let tabs and windows pile up accidentally, then staying on top of your memory usage is important. Even though it's not a solution for long-term storage, it sure is great to be able to resume where you left off after you've closed your computer. Since the computer didn't shut off, your laptop memory will keep track of where you last left it. Just like un-pausing a video-game.