Memory P2 Understand hardware technologies for game platforms P2 -Memory: purpose; random access memory (RAM); capacity; type, eg rambus dynamic (RDRAM), static (SRAM), dynamic (DRAM), unified

So is a hard drive memory? What is Memory? Any physical device capable of storing information temporarily or permanently. Random Access Memory (RAM), is generally what hardware experts mean when they talk about memory. Not Hard Drives, Flash Drives or Cache. It’s volatile memory that stores information on an integrated circuit used by the operating system, software, and hardware. So is a hard drive memory?

Memory Confusions and Differences Technically Yes Although both the hard drive and RAM are memory, it is more appropriate to refer to RAM as "memory" or "primary memory". RAM is volatile. Hard Drive as "storage" or "secondary memory/storage”. Storage is non-volatile. From now on when we refer to memory we mean RAM

Volatile Non- Volatile Non- Volatile

What does it look like?

Why is memory important or needed for a computer? Devices on a computer do not operate at the same speed and computer memory(RAM) gives your computer a place to quickly access data. If the CPU had to wait for a secondary storage device like a hard disk drive the computer would be much slower.

How does it work? You open a program such as your internet browser(Chrome, Firefox etc). It is loaded from your hard drive and placed into RAM. This allows that program to communicate with the processor at higher speeds. Anything you save to your computer, such as a picture or video, is sent to your hard drive for storage.

Memory - Understand hardware technologies for game platforms – Task 1 Find out what kind of RAM is used in Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox One X, PS4, PS4 Pro, and Nintendo Switch and a recent high end gaming PC. Include Type, amount and Bus Clock/Frequency speed and bandwidth. Put this information into a table. As always include reference’s

Why is extra RAM useful for games? RAM Capacity Memory(RAM) comes in various sizes as we have seen. 4GB is generally considered good for general computing. 8GB ideal. Currently for gaming it is considered that 8GB is the minimum needed and seen as 16GB as ideal. Why is extra RAM useful for games?

GDDR vs DDR DDR(Double data rate) SDRAM(Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory): Standard used for most PC’s. Currently on type 4(DDR 4). Graphics DDR SDRAM (GDDR SDRAM): A high bandwidth  interface designed for use in graphics cards, game consoles and high-performance computation. Superior to standard DDR but expensive in comparison. Currently on type 5(GDDR 5)

RAM types Static(SRAM): Does not need to be refreshed as long as the power supply is not cut off. It is faster compared to DRAM, consumes less power, has more transistors but is also more expensive. Cheaper DRAM is used in main memory while SRAM is commonly used in cache memory. Dynamic(DRAM): DRAM requires the data to be refreshed periodically in order to retain the data. Memory in our computers/consoles use a version of this called Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM). Synchronized with the clock speed that the microprocessor is optimized for. This tends to increase the number of instructions that the processor can perform in a given time.

Memory - Understanding hardware technologies for game platforms – Task 2 Underneath your table for task 1 include the purpose of memory; what is random access memory (RAM); capacity; type eg static (SRAM), dynamic (DRAM), and DDR vs GDDR. What are they used for and what’s the differences? Make reference to the different systems in your table from task 1. Select the type and size of memory that fit’s into your £600 console budget. As always include reference’s and examples