RAM & ROM (AQA GCSE Computer Science)

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RAM (Random Access Memory) is primary storage that is directly connected to the CPU and holds the data and instructions that are currently in use
RAM is volatile which means the contents of RAM are lost when the power is turned off
For the CPU to access the data and instructions they must be copied from secondary storage
RAM is very fast working memory, much faster than secondary storage
RAM is read/write which means data can be read from and written to
In comparison to ROM, it has a much larger capacity

ROM (Read Only Memory) is primary storage that holds the first instructions a computer needs to start up (Bootstrap)
ROM contains the BIOS (Basic Input Output System)
ROM is a small memory chip located on the computers motherboard
ROM is fast memory, much faster than secondary storage but slower than RAM
ROM is non-volatile which means the contents of ROM are not lost when the power is turned off
ROM is read only which means data can only be read from
In comparison to RAM, it has a much smaller capacity

Feature	RAM	ROM
Speed	Very fast	Fast (slower than RAM)
Capacity	Gigabytes (GB)	Megabytes (MB)
Stores	Programs and data in use	Bootstrap (start-up instructions)
Read/Write	Read & write	Read only
Volatile/Non-volatile	Volatile	Non-volatile

State two reasons why computers have more RAM than cache memory [2]

Answer

RAM is cheaper (per byte than Cache)
The capacity of cache will usually be big enough to store currently open programs and data

to absolutely everything:

the (exam) results speak for themselves:

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