May 2000
Memories Are Forever
By David Rotman
Electrons are fleeting. Magnets remember. That's the reason your computer stores data permanently in a magnetic hard drive, but uses semiconductor electronics for the random-access memory (RAM) that runs software. Problem is, once you cut the juice, the data in this short-term memory disappears. That's why Windows has to re-boot every time-your PC is transferring the program from the hard drive onto the RAM chips.
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology