RAM and SAM

Don’t worry I am not going to say about the names RAM and SAM but going to explain the two computer related terms, RAM and SAM to you.

RAM (Random Access Memory) is really the main storage and is the place where the programs and software we load gets stored. When the CPU (Central Processing Unit) runs a program, it fetches the program instruction from the RAM and carries them out. If the CPU needs to store the result of calculations, it stores them in RAM.

RAM can have instructions READ from it by the CPU and also it can have numbers or other computer data WRITTEN to it by the CPU. When we switch off, whatever is stored in the RAM gets erased.

RAM is best known form of a computer memory. RAM is considered ‘random access’ because anyone can access any memory cell directly if we know the row and column that intersect at the cell. The opposite of RAM is SAM (Serial Access Memory). SAM stores data as a series of memory cells that can be only accessed sequentially (like a cassette tape). If the data is not in the current location then the memory is checked until the needed data is found. SAM works very well for memory buffers, where the data is normally stored in the order in which it will be used (a good example is the texture buffer memory on a video card). RAM data, on the other hand can be accessed in any order.