RAM Abbreviation Definition
The RAM is another of the most important components of the computer. The acronym stands for Random Access Memory, literally random access memory. But what is it exactly?
It must be said first that the RAM is a volatile memory. In it are temporarily “stored” of information. However when not energized (trivially even when you turn off your computer) the RAM memory is empty (in the non-volatile memory such as hard drive, the data remain stored even when the computer is turned off).
What is then this type of volatile memory? When you run any program on your PC, the CPU needs to use a portion of memory to run the program itself: must find a “free” memory part, not occupied by data. The RAM “makes” the CPU just the memory it needs.
For this purpose you may use the memory of the hard drive? The answer is Yes, but that would significantly increase processing time. For a very simple reason. In a hard drive write data is sequential: the data that is stored the one behind the other, to use a metaphor. So before finding free memory the CPU may take a long time.
This problem is overcome thanks to RAM: can be considered as a kind of memory always available when the CPU needs to process information. And that is why the RAM is emptied when the computer shuts down. If you want to use a metaphor, it is as if the RAM was the “Workbench” where the CPU is all the space you need.
Source: http://www.abbreviationfinder.org/