what is RAM?

[chennianjia]

I have bought andriod phone yesterday,the seller says that the ram is 256MB ,but when i use the software testing, it dispalyed that max ram is 179MB? Someone saids the CPU Cache needs 70MB,What? I feel confused!
I can't understand that! Who can help me??All the posts will be appricated.

 

[tae254]

Random Access Memory (RAM) provides space for your device to read and write data to be accessed by the CPU (central processing unit). I dont know an exact amount that the CPU cache needs but it does take up available ram. Also, if im not mistaken the OS uses up the ram as well.

 

[jkane]

A male goat.

 

[pbrauer]

Technical Definition = Random Access Memory. This is the area of your computer were applications load and run from. On most devices, PC, Mac, Android, whatever, this is where the operating system also has to run. So, this means if you have 256 Mb RAM on your device, you have to immediately subtract the OS footprint from what is available. So, if you have 256 Mb, immediately subtract at least 80 Mb, taking you down to 176 Mb available.

On top of that, you need to keep in mind that the way the core of the OS functions (called the kernel) it loads and unloads what it needs, which mean you will see fluctuations in what is available. The cache is simply referring to what your device is setting aside to the OS to have it ready if it needs it.

Now, all that said and done, Android is actually very efficient in memory management. As you load new apps, it will unload what it doesn't need from RAM to make sure your selected application runs properly. There are certainly applications out there that are huge hogs, but as long as you avoid those you should never see an issue.

hope this helps a little.
-p