Memory is the electronic holding place for instructions and data that your computer’s microprocessor can reach quickly. When your computer is in normal operation, its memory usually contains the main parts of the operating system and some or all of the application programs and related data that are being used. Memory is

often used as a shorter synonym for random access memory (RAM). This kind of memory is located on one or more microchips that are physically close to the microprocessor in your computer. The more RAM you have, the less frequently the computer has to access instructions and data from the more slowly accessed hard disk form of storage.