Primary storage

By Martin McBride, 2017-03-03
Tags: ram rom
Categories: memory and storage memory

Primary storage is the fastest type of storage in the computer. It includes the system RAM (Random Access Memory), and also the ROM (Read Only Memory) which contains the code needed to boot the system.

Primary storage is accessed directly by the CPU bus, which makes it very fast - it only takes a few clock cycles to access data. However it is relatively expensive compared to hard drive storage, so most computers use a combination of both.

See also

Sign up to the Creative Coding Newletter

Join my newsletter to receive occasional emails when new content is added, using the form below:

Popular tags

555 timer abstract data type abstraction addition algorithm and gate array ascii ascii85 base32 base64 battery binary binary encoding binary search bit block cipher block padding byte canvas colour coming soon computer music condition cryptographic attacks cryptography decomposition decryption deduplication dictionary attack encryption file server flash memory hard drive hashing hexadecimal hmac html image insertion sort ip address key derivation lamp linear search list mac mac address mesh network message authentication code music nand gate network storage none nor gate not gate op-amp or gate pixel private key python quantisation queue raid ram relational operator resources rgb rom search sort sound synthesis ssd star network supercollider svg switch symmetric encryption truth table turtle graphics yenc