Memory.
BlitzPlus Forums/BlitzPlus Programming/Memory.
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| Memory is made up of thousands of switchs either 0 for off and 1 for on? Each 0 or 1 is 1 bit of data? Each bit has an address? Sorry for sounding so newbie but I'm wanting to learn exactly how memory works and I'm sure this will be an ongoing topic. Thanks from Jono. PS: I'll be making diagrams from what people post. K, thanks. |
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| Do a search in google for 'sr flip-flop' here is one example... http://isweb.redwoods.cc.ca.us/INSTRUCT/CalderwoodD/diglogic/srflip.htm |
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| You have it right, a bit is either 0 or 1. They can also be called off and on, as well as clear and set. 8 bits together make a Byte, the basic unit of memeory. Memory is stored in binary, so you can store up to 11111111 in one byte, which is equivalent to decimal 255. When looking at computers, though, you usually look at the specs in much bigger units, such as kilobytes, megabytes, and gigabytes. A kilobyte (also known as just K for kilo) is 1024 bytes. A megabyte is 1024 kilobytes or 1048576 bytes, and a gigabyte is 1024 megabytes or 1048576 kilobytes or 1073741824 bytes. Also, each BYTE has an address, not each bit. Byte 1 has an address of 1 and byte 10000 has an address of 10000. Since every computer is slightly different, there are probably websites and probably a manual for your specific computer, if you want to learn more about the low-level workings. Hope it helps! |
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| Also, most of today's home PC's have 32 bit processors which means they are capable of moving up to 4 bytes (32 bits) of information around in 1 CPU cycle (a 3Ghz processor has 3 billion cycles per second)! |
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| Rick05 and Apocalypse.... That is NOT how memory works, that is how values are stored in memory. Jono.... Stick with the example I gave above and do some research on 'The Fetch Execute Cycle' as well. http://richardbowles.tripod.com/durham/comparch/fetchex.htm |
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| I would seriously hate to be one of the first people that had to think up how this stuff should work, and figure it out. |
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| I know, it's pretty mind boggling even today but the original inventors desgined the 'flip flop' nearly 100 years ago. In 1919, W. H. Eccles and F.W. Jordan discovered that two triode valves could be connected to form a circuit possessing two stable states - the basis for the so-called flip-flop. |
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| lol, binary is fun! a 1 or 0 is a bit! 4 of those 1's or 0's is a nibble! 8 is a byte, 16 is a word 32 is a double word, etc, etc Did you know though, that originally it was thought to be more optimal to use trinary rather than binary.. The only draw back then (and still to this day) is the cost of making a computer using miltistate transistors (and gates, etc).. As a high school project (waaaaaay back in the day), we made a basic computer. You would never think as to how much goes into just a basic 4 bit adder or 4 bit address translator, but man does it get mind boggling! |
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| @Prof he asked how memory works. Flip-flops are circuitry and hardware stuff. By what he said conserning binary and bits and addresses, I think he wanted to know about the actually memory and how things are stored. If he wants to know how a computer works overall, then thats another story. Then i would look at those links. |
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| Memory is made up of thousands of switchs I'll be making diagrams from what people post but I'm wanting to learn exactly how memory works ....suggests to me that he wanted to know the hardware side which is really the only way to learn how memory actually works. |
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| Well then let us ask him. Jono, do you want to know about the actually memory and how data is stored in memory? Or do you want to know the hardware side of how a computer works? |
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| OR would you rather just type your question in google and get an answer we all can give for whatever question you ask? |
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| Well firstly I'd need to map how memory is stored, hence the diagrams. Then I'm going to look into how the PC handles the memory thats stored. But I'm amazed at how many people replied and the indepth discussion this has caused. Brilliant stuffs, thanks everyone. I'll be posting my diagrams online aswell, so people can correct them. |
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| Well most computers have of course a hard drive. But also, the cpu instructions can access some special memory banks, the RAM memory and the registers. RAM is the temporary memory storage used by the cpu, and registers are even more temporary banks for storing data. The cpu can address the registers and through direct and indirect addressing get at the RAM and hard drive. The best way to get a good picture of this is to do a google image search for something like "diagram of a cpu" and check those out. |
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