Mobile handheld devices have several types of memory and storage.
- Handheld devices typically have only hundreds of Mbytes to few Gbytes of memory available for users, whereas desktop PCs or notebooks usually have between few Gbytes to tens of Gbytes.
- Additionally, desktop PCs or notebooks have few hundred Gbytes of built-in storage, hard disks, while handheld devices could have between tens of Gbytes to hundreds of Gbytes of flash memory.
There are two basic types of RAM, dynamic RAM (DRAM) and static RAM (SRAM). Dynamic RAM, the more common type, needs to be refreshed thousands of times per second in order to hold data, whereas static RAM does not need to be refreshed, making it faster but also more expensive than dynamic RAM. Both types of RAM are volatile.
Read-Only Memory (ROM)
ROM is manufactured with fixed contents, and it is usually used to store the programs that boot the device and perform diagnostics. It is inherently non-volatile storage, in contrast to RAM.
SD Cards (Secure Digital Cards)
| An SD card is a memory card providing high-capacity memory, up to tens of Gbytes, in a small size. It uses flash memory to provide nonvolatile storage, which means that a power source is not required to retain stored data. An SD card features a high data transfer rate and low battery consumption, both primary considerations for devices. |
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