primary storage

Question 1

name the 4 primary storages

which are volatile and which aren’t. what does volatile

Answer 1

RAM(vol), Registers(vol), Cache(vol), and ROM(non-vol)

contents are lost when the computer is switched off

(Random Access Memory) (Read Only Memory)

Question 2

describe the RAM

has 4 stuff

Answer 2

volatile, big compared to ROM, read and write, holds the operating system, program and data that are currently being loaded in the CPU

Question 3

describe the ROM

has 4 stuff

Answer 3

small compared to RAM, just read, non-volatile, holds the first instructions when the computer is turned on: called the bootstap

Question 4

name the registers

Answer 4

accumulator, memory address register, memory data register, program counter

Question 5

what are the 2 primary functions of primary storage

Answer 5

1. they hold the data and instructions that the CPU needs to access whilst the computer is running.
2. they CPU can access data quicker and easier from the primary storage than the secondary storage

Question 6

under normal circumstances, when data or instructions are read from secondary storage where are they copied to?

Answer 6

primary storage