hardware//RAM

RAM is the volatile storage that gives running programs read and write access with nanosecond latency.

RAM is the volatile storage that gives running programs read and write access with nanosecond latency.

The OS partitions physical RAM into kernel space (privileged, hardware-facing) and user space (application sandboxes). In data-intensive tasks its bandwidth and latency dominate performance, which architecture addresses with wide buses and high-bandwidth memory.

Embedded systems often use on-chip SRAM inside an MCU.

On iPhones, RAM is stacked on the MPU package, for a tiny footprint.

Windows machines allow upgrading the RAM; Macs do not, because the RAM sits inside the MPU package.