From the course: Programming Foundations: Inside Computing Hardware

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Dynamic RAM (DRAM) and static RAM (SRAM)

Dynamic RAM (DRAM) and static RAM (SRAM)

From the course: Programming Foundations: Inside Computing Hardware

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Dynamic RAM (DRAM) and static RAM (SRAM)

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- [Instructor] There are two main types of RAM: dynamic RAM, or DRAM, and static RAM, or SRAM. Dynamic RAM is based on one-transistor, one-capacitor cell structure. The capacitor is to store data, a bit, zero or one. The transistor acts as a switch for reading and changing the capacitor state. DRAM capacitors have a tendency to leak electrons and lose their charge, so they must be refreshed periodically to return their data, hence the name, dynamic. In static RAM, the data is stored using the state of a six-transistor memory cell, four to store the bit and two to control access to the cell. In this type of RAM, there is no need to periodically refresh it, making it static. SRAMs are more expensive and faster than DRAMs because they don't need to be refreshed periodically. However, they don't store as much data as DRAMs. SRAM often used for cache memory in CPUs because of its speed as it allows for quicker data access.…

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