An easy-to-understand explanation of the difference between the roles of memory and storage! Solved your questions about CPU and how to choose it

This time, I will explain the difference between memory and storage.

This article is recommended for the following people:

• I often hear about memory and storage, but I don't know the difference.
• Therefore, when choosing a computer, etc., it is difficult to know the approximate amount of memory and storage required...
• Furthermore, when the CPU is involved, it becomes even more incomprehensible!

PCs, smartphones, and tablets are all familiar to us these days, but surprisingly there aren't many opportunities to understand these words.

In this article, we will explain the difference between memory and storage as clearly as possible for such people.

To summarize briefly, there are the following differences between memory and storage.

• Data storage period
• Handling of data when the power is turned off
• Possibility of direct access from CPU, etc.

It may be difficult to understand what this means, so I will explain it in detail in the article.

Easy to understand the difference between memory and storage! Answer ① What is the role of memory?

First, we will explain the roles of memory and storage.

First, let's talk about memory.

Memory is a storage medium that temporarily stores necessary data.

Temporarily necessary data includes text memos, records of email and app operations that can be returned to their original state by pressing "Back (Ctrl+Z)," and the trajectory of browser pages.

Memory is further divided into two types.

that is,

• RAM
• ROM

is.

Let's check the differences between each.

Difference between memory and storage: What is RAM?

RAM is an abbreviation for "Random Access Memory," and as explained above, it refers to memory that temporarily stores data.

In other words, when we talk about memory, we are mainly referring to RAM.

Difference between memory and storage: What is ROM?

ROM is an abbreviation for "Read Only Memory," and as the name suggests, it is read-only memory.

The main types of memory that cannot be written to are game software and music CDs.

Also, the capacity (storage) that can be stored on a smartphone is sometimes expressed as ROM.

This may be a bit confusing, since ROM cannot normally be written to.

What is “memory?” If you ask me...

Some of you may have been asked, "What kind of memory does this computer/smartphone have?" and you don't really know what they're talking about.
It seems like you don't get asked about memory very often.

If you have a Windows computer, you can check the memory capacity by following the steps below, and you can answer that value.

1. Select "Start (Windows mark)".
2. Select "Settings (gear mark)".
3. Select "System".
4. Select "Details".
5. The "◯◯GB" displayed in "Installed RAM" is the memory capacity.

Also, be careful not to confuse memory with storage, which will be explained next.

Easy to understand the difference between memory and storage! Answer ② What is storage?

Next, let's talk about storage.

Storage is a storage medium that has the role of storing long-term and permanent data.

Put simply,

“Isn’t 64GB of smartphone capacity enough?”
"I take a lot of photos, so 128GB might not be enough!"
The term "capacity" that comes up in conversations like this refers to storage.

On a computer, the storage capacity is the capacity of the HDD (hard disk) or SSD.

The idea is that the more storage (capacity) you have, the more data you can store such as photos, videos, and applications on your smartphone or PC.

How much storage do you have on your computer/smartphone? Let's check it out

Did you understand the role and concept of storage?

You might get a better idea by actually checking the storage on your computer or smartphone.

You can also check your storage to see how much space you're currently using against your maximum capacity, and how much space you have left.

[Check the storage of your Windows computer]

1. Select "Start (Windows mark)".
2. Select "Settings (gear mark)".
3. Select "System".
4. Select Storage.
5. The used capacity and total capacity are displayed.

[Check the storage of your Mac computer]

1. Select Apple Menu.
2. Select "System Settings".
3. Select "General".
4. Select "Storage".

[Check iPhone storage]

1. Open the "Settings" app.
2. Select "General".
3. Select "iPhone Storage".
4. The current used capacity, total capacity, and used capacity for each app are displayed.

[Check Android storage]

1. Open the "Settings" app.
2. Select "Device Care".
3. Select "Storage".

Easy to understand the difference between memory and storage! Answer ③ Conclusion and supplements

We have explained memory and storage, but did you understand the characteristics and roles of each?

Summary,

• Memory plays the role of “storing temporary data needed for work”
• The role of storage is to save long-term, permanent data that does not disappear even when the power is turned off.

This means that you have .

Supplementary note 1: Why are memory and storage used differently?

By the way, some of you may be wondering, ``Storage and memory are both storage media, so why bother using them separately?''

The reason why they are used differently is related to the data reading and writing speed of each.

For example, what happens if all data is processed in storage without using memory?

The answer is, "Your computer becomes slower."

The reason is that storage has slower data read and write speeds than memory.

Therefore, if all data that only needs to be stored temporarily is processed in storage, it may become sluggish due to read/write speeds.

Memory and storage are used differently based on data read/write speed.

Supplement ② About saving data to storage due to lack of memory

In fact, even when you launch and work on many applications and software at once, the same phenomenon as when processing data only with storage may occur.
This is the evacuation of data to storage due to insufficient memory.

If we compare this to real-life work, it looks like the following.

"I do a lot of work on my desk, but I have so many documents that I don't have enough space on my desk! I can't spread out the materials any more, so I should put the documents I'm not currently doing on the bookshelf."

In this situation, you can quickly check the materials on your desk. However, you have to go get the documents you put away on the bookshelf.

The low memory condition is the same as the situation above.

When a large number of applications start up and the memory becomes insufficient, the memory temporarily evacuates data to storage.

This means that writes to storage occur.

Then, when the evacuated data is needed, it is returned from storage to memory. Again, reading and writing data to the storage will occur.

When you run out of memory, you have to work with storage that has slow read/write speeds, which slows down your operations.

Is CPU different from memory and storage? Easy to understand explanation

When researching about computers, you may come across the word "CPU" as much as memory and storage.

Simply put, a CPU is a ``control device that issues instructions to various devices connected to a computer'' and ``a device that performs calculations according to a program.''

Therefore, it has a clearly different role from memory and storage.

The CPU also issues instructions to read and write data to memory and storage.

for example,

"We'll still use this data, so why don't you temporarily leave it on your desk (save it in memory)?"
“Should I keep this data carefully on my bookshelf (save it in storage)?”

In this way, they make judgments and allocate them.

The CPU also has the role of a computing device.

Reading a program and calculating it may seem difficult.

Roughly speaking, a program is like a manual that gives instructions such as ``When this app clicks here, make this movement.''
The CPU controls various devices according to this manual.

In this way, the CPU is a control/arithmetic device, and has a brain-like role that is different from memory or storage.

How to choose a computer considering the difference between memory and storage

Now that you understand the difference between memory and storage, consider them when choosing a computer.

The memory and storage you need will vary depending on what kind of work you are currently doing on your computer and what kind of apps you will use in the future.

Which comes first: memory or storage?

Which comes first, memory or storage, depends on the usage.

In particular, the amount of memory required differs depending on what you do.

For example, if you're doing a lot of work such as surfing the Internet or watching a few videos, 8GB of memory may be enough.

However, if you want to edit videos or play online games, you will need more memory.

You can play normal quality games and edit HD videos with around 16GB, but if you want to play games or do development, you may need more than 32GB of memory.

Furthermore, along with this, the required storage capacity increases, and the CPU, which is the brain, also needs to have high performance.

On the other hand, even if you don't have to do anything difficult or use heavy software, if you want to store a lot of videos and photos, it would be a good idea to have 256GB or more of storage.

In addition, cloud storage, which allows data to be stored online instead of on the device itself, has recently become popular.

If your purpose is to save data such as photos and videos, one option is to keep the storage on the device to a minimum and use such cloud services.

In this way, when choosing a computer, you can choose the specs that suit your purpose by clarifying what kind of work you want to do.

Frequently asked questions [Other]

Other frequently asked questions about memory and storage include:

What is the difference between Mac computer memory and storage?

For Mac, the difference between memory and storage is the same as explained in the following section.

→Easy to understand the difference between memory and storage! Answer ③ Conclusion

What is the difference between memory card and SD card?

SD cards and memory cards are the same.

However, memory card is a general term for storage devices including SD cards, and SD cards are the mainstream standard among them.

SD cards come in sizes ranging from the size of a postage stamp to smaller ones, and are used to record data from cameras, smartphones, game consoles, etc.

summary

This time, we mainly explained the difference between memory and storage.

It feels like a technical term that is difficult to understand because it is written in katakana and has somewhat similar images, but I hope you can imagine that each has a role.

I'll summarize it one last time.

• Memory acts like a desk to store temporary data, and its reading and writing speeds are fast.
• Storage is like a bookshelf or drawer that stores long-term and permanent data, and its reading and writing speed is slower than memory.

If you want to launch many apps at the same time and perform many tasks, choose one with a larger memory capacity so you can work more comfortably.

If you want to store a lot of photos, videos, etc., it's best to choose one with a large storage capacity.

In this way, if you can deepen your understanding of memory and storage even a little, you will be able to choose a device that better suits your purpose when choosing a PC or smartphone that may occur in the future.