Memory subsystems needn?t require a significant learning curve.
The complexity of today?s embedded systems and the accompanying memory subsystems can sometimes have a learning curve for the novice engineer. Memory comprises hardware components that operate as either temporary (volatile) or persistent (non-volatile) storage ?containers.? These magical nuggets of electrically-charged circuitry store states of information and are used for instructions (binary code) and organize data as addressable bytes (8 bits), double-bytes (16 bits), and quad-bytes (32 bits).
In combination with the embedded operating system (OS) that controls the resources like memory subsystems, software instructs the processor (CPU) to send a burst of electricity along an address line that identifies a transition?s location in the chip where data is stored. This pulse can turn on or off a transistor connected to data lines. When the electrical pulse reaches an address line, the pulse flows through a closed transistor and charges a capacitor that stores the equivalent of a 1 (on) bit and, conversely, an uncharged capacitor represents a 0 (off) bit.