Random Access Memory


 * "RAM" redirects here. For the audio format, see RAM (RealAudio).

Random Access Memory (RAM) is the volatile memory storage used by computers to hold the programs and data being worked with at the moment. The data goes away when you turn off the computer, so it needs to be saved to a more permanent medium such as a disk or nonvolatile memory.

"Random Access Memory" is a terrible name, because it fails to do the one thing it really needs to do, which is to distinguish itself from Read Only Memory. Read Only Memory is just as random access as Random Access Memory.

Links

 * Lotus/Intel/Microsoft Expanded Memory Specification (1985)