What exactly is Computer Memory - Understanding it can be the difference between a slow computer and a faster computer. Understanding it can mean fewer crashes/freezes. Having plenty of it means a smoother running computer. Memory is one of the core hardware components for the computer. It is the component that temporarily stores information (such as Numbers, Characters, Settings, Instructions, Files and so on) once a computer has started. The information is temporary because when a computer is switched off or restarted the information is deleted from memory. When a program has finished with the information, the memory it was using is released (not deleted) so other programs can then use that memory. Memory itself is a microchip (see above) that can temporarily store Bytes. The more bytes the memory has the more information it can temporarily store. A byte is just a number with a value between 0 and 255. It is a program's job to turn each byte into something a human and/or another program can interpret. This has been created with the help of GSA Content Generator DEMO.
For example. If the memory was storing 4 Bytes with the values 74, 79, 72 and 78 it would mean nothing to you. However. To Microsoft Word 2007 the byte value 74 means J. The byte value 79 means O. The byte value 72 means H and the byte value 78 means N. So even though the memory is storing byte values that mean nothing to you, Microsoft Word 2007 has no trouble interpreting (reading) those same byte values as JOHN. The same applies to other programs that interpret (read) the byte values. For example. A Paint program might interpret 74 as colour Red, 79 as colour Yellow, 72 as colour Blue and 78 as colour Green. Whereas a Language program might interpret (read) 74 as English, 79 as Spanish, 72 as French and 78 as Italian. It depends on the program. Either way, the memory will always see 74, 79, 72 and 78. Here is a diagram of the memory with the 4 Bytes interpreted. The logic behind interpreting byte values is like so: If the byte value is 74 display J (Microsoft Word 2007). If the byte value is 74 use English (Language program). This has been generated by GSA Content Generator Demoversion.
If the byte value is 74 use colour Red (Paint program). And so on. In other words, the byte will always have its value of 74 but it can be interpreted differently depending on the program doing the interpreting. Programs that save settings files use interpretation a lot to cut down on the number of bytes used. For example. If a paint program had to interpret RED, YELLOW and BLUE with characters it would use 13 Bytes (R E D Y E L L O W B L U E). Although the above concentrated on programs interpreting byte values that were already stored inside memory, the reverse is just as true. For example. When https://essayfreelancewriters.com/blog/how-to-write-a-500-word-essay/ type the word JOHN into a Microsoft Word 2007 document its stores (puts) the byte values 74, 79, 72 and 78 inside memory. The same with a paint program. Instead of storing the characters R E D (byte values 82, 69 and 68) it might store the byte value 74 (which represents RED in the above example) so that it is uses 1 Byte, instead of 3, every time you use the red ink. This data has been generated by GSA Content Generator DEMO!
Basically, memory is just full of numbers that are interpreted by programs to mean Instructions, Settings, Characters, Words, Sentences, Numbers, Symbols and so on. When a program opens it first allocates some memory for its own needs. For example. If you open a 1000 bytes essay file with Microsoft Word 2007, from a floppy disk, and edit it (i.e you change the word JOHN into PAUL) the changes are not made to the essay file on the floppy disk. They are made inside memory instead, to avoid wear of the floppy disk. If you imagine every time you edited an essay character (byte value) the whole essay file had to be re-saved onto floppy disk you would soon end up with a damaged floppy disk. Just changing JOHN into PAUL would mean four re-saves. Memory is purposely made for the constant editing of byte values. When Microsoft Word 2007 opens an essay file from floppy disk for example it first allocates (reserves) 1000 bytes of file memory, so it can store an exact copy of the essay file inside that memory - The original essay file on the floppy disk is left intact.
The next thing Microsoft Word 2007 does is allocate some memory for its editing needs. For example. If you make a copy of the word JOHN, because you want to add (paste) it somewhere else in the essay, behind the scenes Microsoft Word 2007 makes a copy of the word JOHN by storing the word JOHN inside the edit memory. So you now have 1000 bytes full of essay characters inside the file memory and 4 bytes used inside the edit memory for the J O H N characters. However. Because you might want to copy a paragraph, an whole essay page or even the whole essay Microsoft Word 2007 has to make sure it has allocated enough edit memory for these situations. The same applies to the file memory - It might not be allocated just 1000 bytes for the essay characters, but perhaps 3000 bytes just in case you need to add more to the essay (i.e you start copying bits out of an History/Research file into the essay or you just type more characters into the essay). So the essay might need 5000 bytes in total allocated for it.
What exactly is Computer Memory - Understanding it can be the difference between a slow computer and a faster computer. Understanding it can mean fewer crashes/freezes. Having plenty of it means a smoother running computer. Memory is one of the core hardware components for the computer. It is the component that temporarily stores information (such as Numbers, Characters, Settings, Instructions, Files and so on) once a computer has started. The information is temporary because when a computer is switched off or restarted the information is deleted from memory. When a program has finished with the information, the memory it was using is released (not deleted) so other programs can then use that memory. Memory itself is a microchip (see above) that can temporarily store Bytes. The more bytes the memory has the more information it can temporarily store. A byte is just a number with a value between 0 and 255. It is a program's job to turn each byte into something a human and/or another program can interpret. This has been created with the help of GSA Content Generator DEMO.