instructions and Memory Management

• the computers use memory(RAM) to hold the program being executed and the data that these programs use. it is helpful to understand how data is organized in memory.

• the memory is organized in cells and each cell has a unique memory address.

• A memory cell is the smallest addressable unit which consist of 1 Cell= 8 bits = 1 Bytes.

• the program execution starts when it is loaded in to the RAM by the operating system which allocates the required memory for program to run.

• the program loaded in the RAM is a set of machine instructions in binary.

• the memory(RAM) is composed of bits, grooups of 8 bits which form a 1 byte.

• each byte can be addressed with unique memory address number and hence byte is a smallest addressble memory unit.

• A word is defined as specific number of bits which can be processed together(i.e in one attempt) by the processor.

• Alternatively, we can say that word defines the amount of data that can be transferred between CPU and RAM in a single operation.

• the memory is generally organized as array of bytes(1 bytes = 8 bits) and each byte represents a memory location with its unique memory address.

• the memory can also be organized as word addressble and each word with unique memory address. however the memory address numbers for each word will be decided depending upon the word size(23bit word OR 64 bit word.)