LYCOS RETRIEVER
Computer: Memory
built 612 days ago
A computer's memory can be viewed as a list of cells into which numbers can be placed or read. Each cell has a numbered "address" and can store a single number. The computer can be instructed to "put the number 123 into the cell numbered 1357" or to "add the number that is in cell 1357 to the number that is in cell 2468 and put the answer into cell 1595". The information stored in memory may represent practically anything. Letters, numbers, even computer instructions can be placed into memory with equal ease. Since the CPU does not differentiate between different types of information, it is up to the software to give significance to what the memory sees as nothing but a series of numbers.
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Card, Moran & Newell developed the GOMS model to explain the skills involved in human-computer tasks (especially text-editing). The GOMS model suggests that all computer activities are formulated in a problem space and involve different stages of memory. Errors occur because of performance limitations in formulating the problem or memory processes.
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The IBM 650 magnetic drum calculator established itself as the first mass-produced computer, with the company selling 450 in one year. Spinning at 12,500 rpm, the 650´s magnetic data-storage drum allowed much faster access to stored material than drum memory machines.
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You already know that the computer in front of you has memory. What you may not know is that most of the electronic items you use every day have some form of memory .... Here are just a few examples of the many items that use memory:
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A computer can store any kind of information in memory as long as it can be somehow represented in numerical form. Modern computers have billions or even trillions of bytes of memory.
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