“Memory is made of this ....”

Many a time I’ve taken my car to the garage to have a service and the mechanic has told me I need another “lesser spotted oil socket, as this one is worn down..” On occasion I’ve felt a bit like a mechanic when trying to explain that someone’s computer needs more memory, disc space... or a “lesser spotted oil socket”.

So what does Memory, hard disc and CPU all mean?
As the demand for new and whizzier functions within the internet and programs running on computers increases, the need for the computer to perform its tasks as quickly and efficiently as possible increases. Its the CPU, the memory, hard disc and the lesser spotted oil socket that perform these operations (not really)

CPU:
CPU stands for Central Processing Unit, if you’ve ever been seen a PC World advert and seen words like “2.5ghz processor” this is referring to the speed of the CPU. It is responsible for most of the data processing within the computer, so naturally the more “ghz” you have the faster your data gets processed. Have you noticed ho §w quickly parking machines now take your card payment, its almost instantaneous, that’s a good example of how fast CPU’s have become, a few years ago it used to take much longer. (so there is some progress in the modern world).

So how does that affect me? Well it means that you can watch a film or listen to music, while you’re doing your shopping and checking your email. Faster CPU’s mean more multi tasking for you and the computer, and as a man I don’t understand that so moving swiftly on...

Memory:
The memory works hand in hand with the CPU and hard disc, in that it will temporarily handle data processing if the CPU and hard disc are busy doing other stuff, its like a temporary holding area for the work the computer has to do. So if you find yourself waiting for the computer to finish what you’ve asked it to do (the screen seemingly ‘freezing’ is a symptom of this) it is likely that the computer hasn’t got enough ‘oomph’ between the CPU and the memory to do what your asking. Fear not though because if this is happening usually upgrading the memory will help in the short term, and its a farily cheap and simple process to upgrade.

Going back to our PC world advert, the memory is the part that would say something like “2gb RAM” Needless to say the more “Gb” you have the more oomph and the quicker you can do things!

Hard disk:
Put simply and as usual in a horrible metaphor this is like a big cupboard or filing cabinet, where all your files, photos, music is stored, the more disc space you have the more things you can keep in your “cupboard”. Modern computers (aren’t they all??) come with plenty of disc space (it would be something like 250GB HD on that PC world advert).

So when you ‘double click’ (or single click if you’re a MAC user) on a photo in your “My Pictures” and your photo is instantly displayed on the screen it’s the CPU, memory and hard disk working together perfectly, its a thing of beauty (OK its not up there with Chanctonbury ring, but its nice when it works as it should!)

Happy computing.

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