What Does RAM Stand For?

Do you know, what does RAM stand for? RAM is the acronym used to refer to the short-term memory of your computer. If you want to improve your computer's performance, you should learn all about these three important letters.

The semantics: What does RAM stand for, exactly?
The acronym RAM stands for Random Access Memory. While the technical specifications are complicated, RAM is basically your computer's short-term memory. It's different from the hard drive, which is considered your computer's long-term or hard memory. Both of these are vital to computer performance.

What does RAM do for your computer?
When you start your computer, the computer loads the data it needs into the RAM, or short-term memory. It's much faster for the computer to retrieve data from the RAM than from the hard drive. The more RAM you have, the more programs you can run at the same time and the faster things run. Without RAM, you wouldn't be able to use your computer. While the computer can move data from the hard drive to RAM to work with, it wouldn't be able to work with the data directly from the hard drive without RAM.

More is better: Get extra RAM.
The type and quantity of RAM that you have determines how quickly your computer functions. Computers with more RAM generally start up faster and can comfortably run more programs without lag, while computers that don't have enough RAM may freeze or have programs shut down unexpectedly due to not having enough memory. Therefore, more is better.

Different operating systems put different levels of strain on your computer, and they may require different base levels of RAM. For example, if you're running Windows XP, you'll need less RAM for the same tasks than if you're running Windows Vista.

RAM works only when your computer is on.
RAM is static memory, and it works only when you have an electrical current running through it. Therefore, when you turn your computer's power off, any data in the RAM disappears. If you save files to the hard drive before you turn the computer off, you can access them again when you power up the system, but data can't remain in the RAM when the system is off. That's why your computer needs both types of memory.

Notebooks may be able to use external RAM.
Notebooks are a bit more flexible than desktops; you may be able to add RAM to your notebook via credit card memory or a PCMCIA memory card. Most notebooks have a PCMCIA card slot, but not all notebooks support credit card memory. It's harder to add extra RAM to notebooks internally, as they're not made for the home user to upgrade, so you may find yourself utilizing the PCMCIA slot for a memory upgrade if you don't want to pay a technician to perform it.