Primary and Secondary Storage

The term primary storage referees to the main memory of the computers, where both data
and instructions are held for immediate access and use by the computer central
processing. Although technology is changing, most primary storage today is considered a
Volatile form of storage, meaning that the data and the instruction are lost when the
computer is turned off. Secondary storage (or auxiliary storage) is any storage device
designed to retain data and instructions in a more permanent form. Secondary storage is
nonvolatile, meaning that the data and instructions remain intact when the computer is
turned off.

Primary Storage Unit

Random Access Memory (RAM).
Ram stands for Random Access Memory. As the name suggests data or instruction could
be accessed quickly/randomly from the RAM. It is a temporary/volatile memory i.e. what
ever data or instruction is in RAM would be lost when the computer is switched off. Also
when
the program is been completely executed it is automatically removed from the RAM .The
information stored in RAM could be read, written, modified or erased. RAM stores the
user’s data, instruction, intermediate and final result temporally.

Read-only memory (ROM)

Read-only memory (usually known by its acronym, ROM) is a class of storage media
used in computers and other electronic devices. Because data stored in ROM cannot be
modified (at least not very quickly or easily), it is mainly used to distribute firmware
(software that is very closely tied to specific hardware, and unlikely to require frequent
updates).
Modern semiconductor ROM chips are not immediately distinguishable from similar
chips like RAM modules, except by the part numbers printed on the package.

Secondary Storage Devices

Most Business information and particularly Transactions require semi-permanent Storage
i.e. we need to store a transaction for either further processing or references. It should
also be possible to edit and update such transactions. Primary Storage such as the RAM
though fast
cannot be used for this purpose due to the sheer size of the information that an
organization needs to store over a period of time. Further primary storage is volatile in
nature. I.e. all information in the primary storage is lost as soon the power is turned off or
the programme which has generated or is processing the information completes it job.

Some of the commonly used secondary storage devices include:

∠ Floppy Disks and Drives
∠ Hard Disks
∠ CDs/DVDs and CD/DVD drives
∠ Pen Drives.