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GCSE Computer Science · key term
The computer’s main memory, which temporarily holds instructions and data currently in use.
Used by OCR
Paper 1
Revise: Purpose of the CPUWhile a program is running, its instructions and data are held in main memory, called Random Access Memory (RAM). The CPU repeatedly obtains an instruction, works out what it means and carries it out. This is the fetch-execute cycle.
Main memory that holds programs and data currently in use so that the CPU can access them.
Do not imply that every instruction performs a calculation or writes a result to RAM: the action depends on the instruction.
When explaining the benefit, link faster access to less time spent waiting for RAM and improved processing performance.
Cache does not replace RAM: it holds a small selection of information that the CPU is likely to need.
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