Computer - Memory (Physical memory)
About
Memory is synonymous with the term primary storage
Technically, memory is not part of the CPU but is the memory that the processor (CPU) addresses on its bus.
Memory is a storage device that stores information in the form of byte.
Physical memory is organized as a sequence of:
- 8-bit bytes (default)
- or word (old)
Each byte (or word) is assigned a unique address, called a physical address. The total number of address is called an address space.
Memory consists of many cells. Each cell is a byte with its address number to access it.
Memory stores two logical type of bytes:
- instructions byte (to create the software)
- data byte (used by the same software)
Memory in a Von Neumann machine does not distinguish between which bytes are data and which bytes are software instructions. (ie memory is schema less). A CPU will execute data byte if such bytes represents valid instructions.