What does RAM mean in talking about a computer?

Answer 1

RAM stands for Random Access Memory.

The term Random Access refers to the fact that the computer can read or write to any specific addresses in any order required. It does not have to be gone through sequentially. This is the memory the computer works with when it is running a program ... as opposed to the storage memory of disk drives. While disk drives are also random access, they are not referred to as such. Disk drives are much slower, so the code the computer is working with is copied into RAM while it is using it, along with any data it might be working with.

Answer 2

RAM stands for Random Access Memory. What this means is that any location in such a memory can be accessed at any time and in any order without having to be concerned about which location was accessed just before or will be accessed just after. This is in contrast to Sequential Access Memory where the locations recirculate in the memory and can only be accessed when they are coming out of the memory in preparation to be put back into the memory.

In general Random Access Memory is usually assumed to imply that this memory can be both read and written, but Read Only Memory (ROM) is usually also randomly accessed even though it can only be read (if the computer tried to write to a Read Only Memory the data is simply lost).

Random Access Memory is available in both Static Random Access Memory (SRAM, only requires power to retain data) and Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM, requires both power and periodic refresh cycles to retain data). The now obsolete Magnetic Core Memory that computers used up until the 1970s are also a type of Random Access Memory, but require no power to retain data (I have personally seen Magnetic Core Memory in old computers still containing a runnable program that had been loaded more than 15 years earlier, when the machine had last been shutdown).