With the continual release in recent years of new types of computer memory (RAM, ROM, DRAM, Flash, SRAM, PRAM…), the memory chip industry has become an ever more bewildering world. Freescale’s MRAM, one of the latest to be commercially unveiled, improves on and combines the advantages of two types of conventional memory.
The various types of computer memory can be classified in several different ways, the simplest of which is the division into volatile and non-volatile memory. Volatile memory requires constant power to maintain stored information. Most types of RAM (random access memory), the most common type of memory used by modern computers, are volatile. Thus, to store information, conventional RAM computer chips are dependent upon electricity flowing through them. When the power is switched off (i.e., when the system is “powered down”), unless the information has been copied to the hard drive, the information is lost.
Non-volatile memory, on the other hand, can retain stored information permanently, absolving the need for a constant power supply. ROM (read-only memory), which stores information that does not require frequent changing (i.e., doesn’t need rewriting), such as Firmware (a software embedded inside a hardware such as a BIOS [basic input-output system]), is typically non-volatile. So, even when the system is off, the data is stored.
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