Essentials of Computer Organization and Architecture, 5th Edition

CHAPTER6

Memory

RAM /abr./: Rarely Adequate Memory, because the more memory a computer has, the faster it can produce error messages.

—Anonymous

 

640K [of memory] ought to be enough for anybody.

—Anonymous

6.1   INTRODUCTION

Most computers are built using the Von Neumann model, which is centered on memory. The programs that perform the processing are stored in memory. We examined a small 4 × 3-bit memory in Chapter 3, and we learned how to address memory in Chapters 4 and 5. We know memory is logically structured as a linear array of locations, with addresses from 0 to the maximum memory size the processor can address. In this chapter, we examine the various types of memory and how each is part of the memory hierarchy system. We then ...