NG HUI YIE

TMKS 3023
Computer memory: The computer memory is a temporary storage area. It holds the
data and instructions that the Central Processing Unit (CPU) needs. Before a
program can be run, the program is loaded from some storage medium into the
memory. This allows the CPU direct access to the program.

RAM: Random-access memory (RAM /rm/) is a form of computer data storage. A

random-access memory device allows data items to be read and written in
approximately the same amount of time, regardless of the order in which data items
are accessed.[1] In contrast, with other direct-access data storage media such as
hard disks, CD-RWs, DVD-RWs and the older drum memory, 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 delays.

ROM: cronym for read-only memory, computer memory on which data has been
prerecorded. Once data has been written onto a ROM chip, it cannot be removed
and can only be read.
Unlike main memory (RAM), ROM retains its contents even when the computer is
turned off. ROM is referred to as being nonvolatile, whereas RAM is volatile.
Most personal computers contain a small amount of ROM that stores critical
programs such as the program that boots the computer. In addition, ROMs are used
extensively in calculators and peripheral devices such as laser printers, whose
fontsare often stored in ROMs.

DRAM: Dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) is a type of random-access

memory that stores each bit of data in a separate capacitor within an integrated
circuit. The capacitor can be either charged or discharged; these two states are
taken to represent the two values of a bit, conventionally called 0 and 1. Since even
"nonconducting" transistors always leak a small amount, the capacitors will slowly
discharge, and the information eventually fades unless the capacitor charge is
refreshed periodically. Because of this refresh requirement, it is a dynamic memory
as opposed to static random access memory (SRAM) and other static types of
memory.

The main memory (the "RAM") in personal computers is dynamic RAM (DRAM). It is
the RAM in desktops, laptops and workstation computers as well as some of the
RAM of video game consoles.

NG HUI YIE
The advantage of DRAM is its structural simplicity: only one transistor and a
capacitor are required per bit, compared to four or six transistors in SRAM. This
allows DRAM to reach very high densities. Unlike flash memory, DRAM is volatile
memory (vs. non-volatile memory), since it loses its data quickly when power is
removed. The transistors and capacitors used are extremely small; billions can fit on
a single memory chip.

Due to the nature of its memory cells, DRAM consumes relatively large amounts of
power, with different ways for managing the power consumption.

SRAM: SDRAM is an improvement to standard DRAM because it retrieves data

alternately between two sets of memory
Static random-access memory (SRAM or static RAM) is a type of semiconductor
memory that uses bistable latching circuitry (Flip-flop) to store each bit. The term
static differentiates it from dynamic RAM (Dynamic random-access memory) which
must be periodically refreshed. SRAM exhibits data remanence,[1] but it is still
volatile in the conventional sense that data is eventually lost when the memory is
not powered.

SIMM: A SIMM, or single in-line memory module, is a type of memory module

containing random-access memory used in computers from the early 1980s to the
late 1990s.

EDO: Alternatively referred to as Hyper Page mode memory, EDO is short for
Extended Data Out and is a type of memory developed in 1995 by Micron that was
first used with Pentium computers. EDO allows a CPU to access memory 10 to 15percent faster the compatible Fast Page memory by not turning off the data output
drivers after the memory has removed the column address. An upgraded variation
of EDO memory is BEDO, although it was never widely used.
DDR: In computing, a computer bus operating with double data rate (DDR)
transfers data on both the rising and falling edges of the clock signal. This is also
known as double pumped, dual-pumped, and double transition. The term toggle
mode is used in the context of NAND flash memory.

EPROM: An EPROM (rarely EROM), or erasable programmable read-only memory, is

a type of memory chip that retains its data when its power supply is switched off. In
other words, it is non-volatile.

NG HUI YIE
EEPROM: EEPROM (also written E2PROM and pronounced "e-e-prom", "double-e
prom", "e-squared", or simply "e-prom") stands for Electrically Erasable
Programmable Read-Only Memory and is a type of non-volatile memory used in
computers and other electronic devices to store small amounts of data that must be
saved when power is removed, e.g., calibration tables or device configuration.

Unlike bytes in most other kinds of non-volatile memory, individual bytes in a

traditional EEPROM can be independently read, erased, and re-written.

Computer register: In computer architecture, a processor register is a small amount

of storage available as part of a digital processor, such as a central processing unit
(CPU). Such registers are typically addressed by mechanisms other than main
memory and can be accessed faster.

Perbincangan
Memory Address Register:
In a computer, the Memory Address Register (MAR) is a CPU register that either
stores the memory address from which data will be fetched to the CPU or the
address to which data will be sent and stored.

In other words, MAR holds the memory location of data that needs to be accessed.
When reading from memory, data addressed by MAR is fed into the MDR (memory
data register) and then used by the CPU. When writing to memory, the CPU writes
data from MDR to the memory location whose address is stored in MAR.

The Memory Address Register is half of a minimal interface between a

microprogram and computer storage. The other half is a memory data register.

Far more complex memory interfaces exist, but this is the least that can work.

The Memory Address Register holds the address of the current instruction being
executed. It points to the relevant location in memory where the required
instruction is (at this stage the address is simply copied from the Program Counter).
In general MAR is a parallel load register that contains the next memory address to
be manipulated. For example, the next address to be read or written.

NG HUI YIE

Program Counter (PC)/instruction pointer:

The program counter (PC), commonly called the instruction pointer (IP) in Intel x86
and Itanium microprocessors, and sometimes called the instruction address register
(IAR),[1] the instruction counter,[2] or just part of the instruction sequencer,[3] is a
processor register that indicates where a computer is in its program sequence.

In most processors, the PC is incremented after fetching an instruction, and holds

the memory address of ("points to") the next instruction that would be executed. (In
a processor where the incrementation precedes the fetch, the PC points to the
current instruction being executed.)

Instructions are usually fetched sequentially from memory, but control transfer
instructions change the sequence by placing a new value in the PC. These include
branches (sometimes called jumps), subroutine calls, and returns. A transfer that is
conditional on the truth of some assertion lets the computer follow a different
sequence under different conditions.

A branch provides that the next instruction is fetched from somewhere else in
memory. A subroutine call not only branches but saves the preceding contents of
the PC somewhere. A return retrieves the saved contents of the PC and places it
back in the PC, resuming sequential execution with the instruction following the
subroutine call