Computers and Technology

In this article I'm going to talk about RAM, also known as computer memory; how RAM affects the speed of a computer, and what exactly is the advantage of having enough computer RAM. A lot of people don't really understand what RAM is, which is nothing to feel bad about, since it's rare to hear a really easy, understandable explanation.

I have a very simple way of explaining the computer term memory that will make sense to anybody, no matter how little you may understand computers. By the end of this explanation, you'll understand what computer RAM is, and you'll also understand how RAM affects the speed of a computer and just exactly what is the advantage of having enough computer RAM.

First off, just in case you didn't know, RAM stands for Random Access Memory. It's not important to remember that, just understand that the computer terms RAM or memory mean the same thing: the temporary working area in a computer. It's temporary because when you turn off the computer, everything in RAM vanishes instantly. This is unlike a hard drive, or "flash memory", both of which store whatever is on them even when the computer is off.

Just for the sake of clarity, "flash memory" and "memory" (i.e. RAM) are not the same thing, so when you hear someone talking about memory --assuming they're using the term correctly -- they're probably not talking about flash memory (which is like the card in a digital camera, or in the smaller iPods, thumb drives, etc.).

So best way to think of computer RAM is this: think of RAM like a table, or work bench.

If you're working on a project -- it could be a student studying for a class, it could be a carpenter working on a bench, or almost any project -- you need a space to work on the project, like the space on a table, or on a workbench. You take out all of your materials (books, or carpenter's tools, or whatever), and you spread them out on your work space. You work on the project, and when you're done, you put everything away again.

This is exactly how a computer's RAM works -- you open a program like your email program, Word, or whatever, and it loads this into the RAM. When you're done, you close the program, and the computer takes the program out of memory (out of the computer RAM) and stores it back on the hard drive. So if you think of RAM like this, you can start to see how RAM affects the speed of the computer, and you can begin to understand the advantage of having enough computer RAM. Not sure where I'm going with this yet? That's OK. We're almost there.

Imagine you have a work bench, or a table that you're sitting at trying to do a project on, and the table or bench is only a foot across. Wouldn't be very easy to get much work done, would it? You'd end up wasting a lot of time trying to make room by moving stuff onto the bench, then moving it back off again to make room for the next thing you needed, right? It's just like that with computer RAM: if your computer doesn't have enough RAM, it doesn't have enough space to work with, and so it's constantly forced to move stuff on and off the "bench" to get things done.

So there's a big advantage to having enough computer RAM: it gives your computer enough "room" to get the work done. The more RAM you have, the more "space on the bench", and the more efficiently the computer can work. The less "space on the bench" the more time it wastes just trying to work without any elbow room.

Does that make sense?

So now you can understand how RAM affects the speed of a computer, and understand exactly what the advantage of having enough computer memory is.