History of Computer Memory

When you try to buy a computer today, you will most probably see specifications where something called RAM is mentioned. RAM is nothing but Random Access Memory and today’s computers have anywhere from 1GB RAM to even 8GB RAM in some high end systems.

RAM is volatile memory in the sense that the information stored in it is temporary. The processing unit in a computer needs a lot of memory to run today’s sophisticated operating systems and applications. It will need to store and retrieve memory on a very high speed basis which is where the RAM serves that purpose. The processor will store necessary information in the RAM to complete a process and then delete that memory when it doesn’t need it. That way, it is able to access the most needed information in the fastest way possible without having to dig around for it from other memory sources such as the hard disk or CD drive.

Though today’s computers are blazing fast, RAM had some very humble beginnings that go back to the 1800’s. This article will try to cover a timeline of events that has led us to the advanced memory chips we see today.

• 1834 – Charles Babbage, the inventor of computer memory came up with read only memory that was stored in punch cards!

• 1932 – An Austrian inventor invents something called the drum memory

• 1936 – A patent is filed for a new form of memory that is mechanical in nature. The memory depended upon the mechanics of sliding metal parts.

• 1942 – The first significant step towards electronic memory was taken with the invention of capacitors.

• 1947 – A series of inventors discovered the use of magnetic core memory.

• 1949 - A person named Jay Forrester perfected the idea of magnetic memory and all previous forms of memory were rendered obsolete.

• 1966 – A major production breakthrough is made by Hewlett Packard, now popularly known as HP, which introduced a line of computers with 8K of memory.

• 1968 – IBM introduces the concept of DRAM of Dynamic Random Access Memory and a patent is awarded to them. DRAM replaced magnetic core memory which became obsolete.

• 1984 – Apple computers, the creators of the Macintosh, released their first personal computer which came with 128KB of memory.

• 1984 – Now – DRAM has evolved at lightning speeds and is available in variations such as DDR and SDRAM which have a capacity of up to 8GB.

Future – Higher end versions of RAM chips called the T-RAM, Z-RAM and TTRAM are to be expected.

Computer memory has advanced massively through the years and the future is only going to bring many more developments. The key is speed and speed we will have!

Thomas Ajava writes about RAM 1gb and other computer memory topics for Ram1GB.com.