While useful information has been posted, some people have said confusing things. Let me answer his question directly.
Short version: SDRAM is just a type of RAM.
Long version:
RAM (Random Access Memory) is a type of computer information storage. It's called random access memory because any piece of stored information can be accessed at any time (it doesn't mean information is accessed at random; the term is misleading here). In contrast, information on a hard drive can't be accessed at any time: the read/write heads must move to the sector where it is stored first. That's the main difference between RAM and other storage media.
SDRAM is just a particular type of RAM, by far the most common one (if you recognize DDR and DDR2 are also types of SDRAM). The initial "SD" mean Synchronous Dynamic. Synchronous because read/write operations are directed by a clock signal (ie: the RAM can only be accessed at periodic time intervals), typically the system bus. Dynamic because stored information must be refreshed continuously or it is lost. Asynchronous DRAM is not very common, but non-dynamic (called "static") RAM is common: CPU cache memory is a type of Static RAM (SRAM).
I hope this answers your question in greater detail.
xAznPrid3x said:
Short version: SDRAM is just a type of RAM.
Long version:
RAM (Random Access Memory) is a type of computer information storage. It's called random access memory because any piece of stored information can be accessed at any time (it doesn't mean information is accessed at random; the term is misleading here). In contrast, information on a hard drive can't be accessed at any time: the read/write heads must move to the sector where it is stored first. That's the main difference between RAM and other storage media.
SDRAM is just a particular type of RAM, by far the most common one (if you recognize DDR and DDR2 are also types of SDRAM). The initial "SD" mean Synchronous Dynamic. Synchronous because read/write operations are directed by a clock signal (ie: the RAM can only be accessed at periodic time intervals), typically the system bus. Dynamic because stored information must be refreshed continuously or it is lost. Asynchronous DRAM is not very common, but non-dynamic (called "static") RAM is common: CPU cache memory is a type of Static RAM (SRAM).
I hope this answers your question in greater detail.
