{"id":1636,"date":"2013-01-19T11:05:13","date_gmt":"2013-01-19T11:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/primary-memory\/"},"modified":"2017-07-17T17:47:03","modified_gmt":"2017-07-17T17:47:03","slug":"primary-memory","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1104\/primary-memory","title":{"rendered":"Primary Memory"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_primary_memory_mean\">What Does Primary Memory Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Primary memory is computer memory that a processor or computer accesses first or directly. It allows a processor to access running execution applications and services that are temporarily stored in a specific memory location.<\/p>\n<p>Primary memory is also known as primary storage or main memory.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_primary_memory\">Techopedia Explains Primary Memory<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Primary memory is a computer system&#8217;s volatile storage mechanism. It may be random access memory (RAM), cache memory or data buses, but is primarily associated with RAM.<\/p>\n<p>As soon as a computer starts, primary memory loads all running applications, including the base operating system (OS), user interface and any user-installed and running software utility. A program\/application that is opened in primary memory interacts with the system processor to perform all application-specific tasks.<\/p>\n<p>Primary memory is considered faster than secondary memory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Primary Memory Mean? Primary memory is computer memory that a processor or computer accesses first or directly. It allows a processor to access running execution applications and services that are temporarily stored in a specific memory location. Primary memory is also known as primary storage or main memory. Techopedia Explains Primary Memory Primary [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[217,223],"class_list":["post-1636","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-hardware","definitioncat-storage"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.8 (Yoast SEO v23.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is Primary Memory? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Primary Memory and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1104\/primary-memory\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Primary Memory\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Primary Memory and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1104\/primary-memory\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-07-17T17:47:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1104\/primary-memory#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1104\/primary-memory\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Primary Memory\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-01-19T11:05:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-07-17T17:47:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1104\/primary-memory\"},\"wordCount\":138,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1104\/primary-memory#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1104\/primary-memory\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1104\/primary-memory\",\"name\":\"What is Primary Memory? 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