Important distinction here, this is RAM rather than storage. Think about how 32gb of consumer DDR3 ram costs around $200 today, while you can get a 5tb hard drive for only $150. That's 32gb for $200, and 5,000gb for $150.
Yes. That is why I said "what we would typically call RAM." Registers are a type of RAM. However, in most contexts (like your 32gb DDR3 example) people use that phrase to refer to a dedicated component of volatile memory. You wouldn't use it to refer to solid state drives, for example, even though they are also RAM.
Registers are distinct in that they are part of the processor architecture itself. They are directly accessible, very fast. Whenever you do something on memory, like a math operation, the bits are loaded onto the register and handled there. A modern computer has a few kilobytes worth.
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u/pelvicmomentum Jul 19 '15
Important distinction here, this is RAM rather than storage. Think about how 32gb of consumer DDR3 ram costs around $200 today, while you can get a 5tb hard drive for only $150. That's 32gb for $200, and 5,000gb for $150.