AI Term of the Moment
DeepSeek
Definition: storage
The holding place for digital data until purposely erased. Storage includes magnetic disks, solid state drives (SSDs) and USB drives. Magnetic tapes and rewritable optical discs (CD, DVD, Blu-ray) are also "non-volatile" storage.
Storage Is Not Memory
Storage is not the computer's memory, which are random access memory (RAM) chips. Memory is a temporary workspace for executing instructions and processing data. Memory is "volatile" and loses its content when the power is turned off. See memory, dynamic RAM and static RAM.
Storage vs. Memory - Sometimes Confusing
Over the years, disks and tapes have been called "memory" products, which blurs the distinction between storage and memory. The chips in solid state drives (SSDs) and USB drives are "flash memory" chips, which adds to the confusion. See storage vs. memory, magnetic disk, magnetic tape and optical disc.
AI Processing Is No Different
Computers used for AI also have storage and memory. Storage is required to hold the AI models, but both regular memory and high-speed memory is used (see high bandwidth memory).
All Chips Look Alike, But Turn the Power Off...
Thirty Years of Progress
Storage Is Not Memory
Storage is not the computer's memory, which are random access memory (RAM) chips. Memory is a temporary workspace for executing instructions and processing data. Memory is "volatile" and loses its content when the power is turned off. See memory, dynamic RAM and static RAM.
Storage vs. Memory - Sometimes Confusing
Over the years, disks and tapes have been called "memory" products, which blurs the distinction between storage and memory. The chips in solid state drives (SSDs) and USB drives are "flash memory" chips, which adds to the confusion. See storage vs. memory, magnetic disk, magnetic tape and optical disc.
AI Processing Is No Different
Computers used for AI also have storage and memory. Storage is required to hold the AI models, but both regular memory and high-speed memory is used (see high bandwidth memory).
The memory chips at the top are volatile but the storage chips at the bottom (cases removed) are non-volatile. Memory is fast but storage is slower. See memory module, USB drive and CompactFlash.
If 90 of these hard drive cabinets from 1992 were side-by-side, they would extend more than half a football field. Today, the microSD card (top) can hold the same amount of data. See microSD. (Image courtesy of The Computer History Museum.)