Cell phones and computers
We asked ourselves the question about how technology storage works. We were also curious to know what the need is for our own memory when we have contact lists, word documents, and other ways of storage at the press of a button.
Flash Drives
Flash drives are used to save backup information from a computer on a small compact drive so that it can be easily transported onto another computer. Since flash drives "store" information they are obviously an apart of memory. A Flash drives memory is called a flash memory. They are used with data storage and are integrated with a USB cord (Universal serial bus) interface. The flash memory on the flash drives is a computer storage chip that can be erased, reprogrammed, and changed very easily. It is called an EEPROM which is an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory. It is a non-violate memory which is basically the "easiest" form of computer memory that there is. Flash drive memories can be easily re-programmed and that is one of the reasons they are so convenient.
Computer Memory
Form of physical electronic storage used to identify temporary forms of storage.
The most common type of computer memory is called RAM memory. This stands for random access memory which is a type of computer memory that is accessed randomly. There are two different types of RAM memory, DRAM (dynamic random access memory) and SRAM (static random access memory). In terms of speed SRAM is faster, but DRAM is more common.
Computers present information in a special manner than you would expect. They represent information in a sequence of 0's and 1's called the binary code. The binary code is a code which uses a string of 8 binary digits (or bits) to represent characters. These binary digits may be stored in any physical system that can be either 0 or 1; this is known as a bistable. A bistable system is the foundation of electronics and other devices. A bistable device is one which can exist in one of two states, either on or off. Some of the bistable electronic devises that use memory include:
- Cell Phones
- PDAs
- Game consoles
- Car radios
- VCR’s
- TV’s
Try This!
See if you can decode the following using the binary code table to the left!
Hint: Be careful of capitals and lowercase!!
01001101 01100101 01101101 01101111 01110010 01111001
Hint: Be careful of capitals and lowercase!!
01001101 01100101 01101101 01101111 01110010 01111001
Sources:
http://www.sigchi.org/chi96/proceedings/doctoral/Byrne/mdb_txt.htm
http://www.exploratorium.edu/memory/links.html
Computer Memory. (2011). (A. S. Woodhull, Rev.). Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 8, 2011, from Grolier Online http://gme.grolier.com/article?assetid=0069250-0
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_bistable_device
http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=binary+code&sub=Search+WordNet&o2=&o0=1&o7=&o5=&o1=1&o6=&o4=&o3=&h=0
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/R/RAM.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EEPROM
http://www.sigchi.org/chi96/proceedings/doctoral/Byrne/mdb_txt.htm
http://www.exploratorium.edu/memory/links.html
Computer Memory. (2011). (A. S. Woodhull, Rev.). Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 8, 2011, from Grolier Online http://gme.grolier.com/article?assetid=0069250-0
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_bistable_device
http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=binary+code&sub=Search+WordNet&o2=&o0=1&o7=&o5=&o1=1&o6=&o4=&o3=&h=0
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/R/RAM.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EEPROM
