argedion
The TechnoFrog
I have seen a few threads through out the forums were people are running out of space or getting low memory or they are reporting low memory and there seems to be some confusion about the different types of memory the phone actually has. Hopefully this Thread will help explain the differences and help you to be able to get better help as you will be more knowledgeable about what memory is doing what.
First we have System ROM - This is not the ROM that runs the phone but a piece of Memory Dedicated to the /system partition, Where the ROM that runs the phone is stored. ROM is READ ONLY MEMORY. This is simple to understand you can't write to it. Think of it as a Display Case over a document like the Declaration of Independence. We cannot write on the Declaration do to the Protection around it. This is the area where your system apps get written to with special software. Unfortunately when system apps are updated (Just the Apps and not the System) then you will sometimes find two or three copies of the same app in system. This is because the system replaces the old app with the new but does not delete or overwrite the old app as it has no write. Notice I said write and not right
When someone "ROOTS" the phone they are basically exposing this special software and getting it to allow them the write access to the ROM. This is where "Flashing" comes in. You can flash a ROM or KERNEL now that you have access to the Special Software. This turns on the write feature of ROM so that you can overwrite it. So on the phone this is know as System Memory.
Next is Internal Memory or RAM, RAM is Random Access Memory. Random Access means it can read and write anywhere in the physical memory. This is a Memory that does not require special software to write to it as it is "built in" Going back to our Document example with RAM this means we can write anywhere on the Declaration we want to as there is no protection to it. So we can write a sentence at the top and then the bottom and come back to the center if we so choose. RAM is where the phone will store user data so that it can easily be overwritten and rewritten to as many times as necessary. One does not need to "ROOT" the phone to write to this area.
Next is The latest thing for these Phone/Tablet makers to do and that is another piece of internal memory that acts like External memory. This is for user data like Pictures/Music/Movies. This generally isn't used for application data.
Last we have External Memory like the memory above this generally isn't used for Application data. This is more for user data such as pictures, movies, and music. Generally this is the larger of the memorys as it is expected to be used as storage. Both external and Internal/External (The above Memory) are RAM not the same kind of RAM as the Internel Memory we call RAM but essentially the same. It stores data in a RANDOM ACESS way just like RAM does on the Phone.
So we Know there are four types of Memory (Actually three but the Internal User Memory is the same as the external memory just cant take it out.)
System ROM that is not writeable to the user and once its full not a lot the user can do to change it with out being "ROOT" This rarely happens as system doesn't store data it only stores apps.
Internal Memory - This is what drives the Low disk space that people get on their phones as the memory gets low. This area will allow you to remove stuff to increase the memory but cannot be added on to, to increase the memory.
Internal USER MEMORY - Like SDCARD but INTERNAL again nothing to increase the memory.
EXTERNAL USER MEMORY - SDCARD can be upgraded to the phones max reading capacity (32 gig to 64 gig ) i believe most to be at the moment.
I Have not talked about SDEXT which is special memory area used by a special program this however is not a normal Memory and really doesn't go into the scope of this discussion as this is 1 a ROOT only Memory area and an a2sd area not to be confused with the Apps2SD that you get from the market. Again a discussion for a different thread.
First we have System ROM - This is not the ROM that runs the phone but a piece of Memory Dedicated to the /system partition, Where the ROM that runs the phone is stored. ROM is READ ONLY MEMORY. This is simple to understand you can't write to it. Think of it as a Display Case over a document like the Declaration of Independence. We cannot write on the Declaration do to the Protection around it. This is the area where your system apps get written to with special software. Unfortunately when system apps are updated (Just the Apps and not the System) then you will sometimes find two or three copies of the same app in system. This is because the system replaces the old app with the new but does not delete or overwrite the old app as it has no write. Notice I said write and not right
When someone "ROOTS" the phone they are basically exposing this special software and getting it to allow them the write access to the ROM. This is where "Flashing" comes in. You can flash a ROM or KERNEL now that you have access to the Special Software. This turns on the write feature of ROM so that you can overwrite it. So on the phone this is know as System Memory.Next is Internal Memory or RAM, RAM is Random Access Memory. Random Access means it can read and write anywhere in the physical memory. This is a Memory that does not require special software to write to it as it is "built in" Going back to our Document example with RAM this means we can write anywhere on the Declaration we want to as there is no protection to it. So we can write a sentence at the top and then the bottom and come back to the center if we so choose. RAM is where the phone will store user data so that it can easily be overwritten and rewritten to as many times as necessary. One does not need to "ROOT" the phone to write to this area.
Next is The latest thing for these Phone/Tablet makers to do and that is another piece of internal memory that acts like External memory. This is for user data like Pictures/Music/Movies. This generally isn't used for application data.
Last we have External Memory like the memory above this generally isn't used for Application data. This is more for user data such as pictures, movies, and music. Generally this is the larger of the memorys as it is expected to be used as storage. Both external and Internal/External (The above Memory) are RAM not the same kind of RAM as the Internel Memory we call RAM but essentially the same. It stores data in a RANDOM ACESS way just like RAM does on the Phone.
So we Know there are four types of Memory (Actually three but the Internal User Memory is the same as the external memory just cant take it out.)
System ROM that is not writeable to the user and once its full not a lot the user can do to change it with out being "ROOT" This rarely happens as system doesn't store data it only stores apps.
Internal Memory - This is what drives the Low disk space that people get on their phones as the memory gets low. This area will allow you to remove stuff to increase the memory but cannot be added on to, to increase the memory.
Internal USER MEMORY - Like SDCARD but INTERNAL again nothing to increase the memory.
EXTERNAL USER MEMORY - SDCARD can be upgraded to the phones max reading capacity (32 gig to 64 gig ) i believe most to be at the moment.
I Have not talked about SDEXT which is special memory area used by a special program this however is not a normal Memory and really doesn't go into the scope of this discussion as this is 1 a ROOT only Memory area and an a2sd area not to be confused with the Apps2SD that you get from the market. Again a discussion for a different thread.
