RAM Sticks
RAM stands for Random Access Memory, which means that it can access and use any random piece of information at will. It's basically a temporary storage area that stores data while its being worked on.
Above is a numbered diagram of a typical RAM stick.
1) These are the memory chips. This is the physical location that the data is held in, and can very in size from 128MB (very small and generally older ones) to 4GB per stick. These chips are made of flash memory, meaning it has very high speed and is a volatile storage space. Volatile means that when power is lost, the chips lose all of the information stored on them, making them unsuitable to save information on for long periods. These chips are also doubled on the left side of the stick, somewhat visible under the sticker.
1) These are the memory chips. This is the physical location that the data is held in, and can very in size from 128MB (very small and generally older ones) to 4GB per stick. These chips are made of flash memory, meaning it has very high speed and is a volatile storage space. Volatile means that when power is lost, the chips lose all of the information stored on them, making them unsuitable to save information on for long periods. These chips are also doubled on the left side of the stick, somewhat visible under the sticker.
2) These are the DIMM pins (Dual In-line Memory Module) which connect the RAM stick(s) to the motherboard. The name, specifically the Dual In-line part means that each pin is part of a pair, doubled on the back side of the chip allowing for a higher contact area and a better and faster signal transmission.
3) This is the controller chip, which, as the name implies, controls the RAM stick by deciding what information to store where, where to send it and what to swap in and out of the HDD (Hard Disk Drive).
There are two interesting features of a RAM stick. One of them being the "RAMDISK" feature, meaning that a program can be made to load straight into the RAM rather than from the hard drive, allowing much higher response rates and is useful with programs like photoshop or a video editor while changing and adjusting parts of the image/video.
The second is the way the RAM stick works. Because of the way the information is stored and used, the information is swapped out between the RAM and the HDD. This can be compared to a tool box in the sense that when you need a certain item, you take it out of the tool box, use it, and when its finished, put it back. This is why computer rigs with low amounts of RAM lag and stutter when using large programs, because the RAM will then have to keep swapping information in and out of the HDD, slowing down the whole computer.
The second is the way the RAM stick works. Because of the way the information is stored and used, the information is swapped out between the RAM and the HDD. This can be compared to a tool box in the sense that when you need a certain item, you take it out of the tool box, use it, and when its finished, put it back. This is why computer rigs with low amounts of RAM lag and stutter when using large programs, because the RAM will then have to keep swapping information in and out of the HDD, slowing down the whole computer.
Cache memory
Cache memory are small block of memory, about 1 megabyte, and work at speeds much higher than other memory types. It speeds up access times of information by locating the information that the CPU asks for by using the aforementioned speed. However, the high speed of the cache memory means it is very prone to breaking after several years of heavy use, where as RAM can be used for many years more.