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Semicolony ELI5 · comic

RAM vs disk.

RAM is your desk; the disk is the filing cabinet across the room.

  1. RAM · desk disk · cabinet across the room
    1

    RAM is the desk right in front of you; disk is the filing cabinet across the room.

  2. Right here.
    data
    2

    The desk is tiny but instant — what you grab is already under your hand.

  3. huge · permanent walk over…
    3

    The cabinet holds far more and keeps it forever, but you have to get up and walk.

  4. It’s… gone?
    gone power cut!
    4

    Pull the plug and the desk clears off — unsaved work was only ever there.

  5. Filed away.
    file desk save cabinet
    5

    Saving a file is just copying it from the fast desk to the permanent cabinet.

  6. hot data, kept close
    6

    So good software keeps the data it needs on the desk, not running to the cabinet.

RAM is the desk in front of you; disk is the cabinet across the room. One is fast and fleeting, the other slow and permanent.
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