Memory is the location where the Information is stored that is currently being used or utilized.
Units of Memory & Storage
|
Quantity |
Information |
|
Bit |
Smallest unit of data, either a 0 or 1 |
|
Byte |
8 Bits
This is the lowest ‘data’ level and is a series of 0s and 1s Eg: 00111010 = 1 Byte with each 0 or 1 equal to 1 bit.
Each keyboard character = 1 byte |
|
Kilobyte (KB) |
1000 Keyboard Characters = 1000 bytes or 1KB (kilobyte)
In reality it is really 1024 bytes which make a kilobyte, but generally people refer to 1000 bytes as a kb |
|
Megabyte (MB) |
1000 Kilobytes = 1MB (1 million keyboard characters) |
|
Gigabytes (GB) |
1000 Megabytes = 1GB (gigabytes or 1 billion characters) |
|
Terabyte (TB) |
Equal to 1,099,000,000,000 bytes |
Memory
There are 2 Main types of Memory; Random Access Memory (RAM) and Read-Only Memory (ROM).
ROM (Read-Only Memory): ROM cannot be altered by the user. Its held on a computer chip. Users cannot store their own data on ROM, Since It’s used to hold the instruction for starting up the computer. ROM is a non-volatile memory.
RAM (Random Access Memory: Users can write data into RAM and also read data from RAM. It’s a volatile memory and RAM is held on a computer chip. RAM are used to hold data and programs. It needs power. If the power is switched off the data in RAM disappears.



