Talk:Random-access memory

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History of term "RAM"

This article does not answer a couple rather basic questions:

When and where and by whom was the term "random access memory" in RAM coined?
Why did it stick, even though, as Prof Tanenbaum writes in his book Structured Computer Organization: The memories we have studied so far can all be read and written. Such memories are called RAMs (Random Access Memories), which is a misnomer because all memory chips are randomly accessible, but the term is too well established to get rid of now.

CapnZapp (talk) 16:55, 12 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Another meaning?

I've found a usage where it seems to mean something not matching what I've read in this article. It seems like the following are examples of random access memory as used there:

A queue
A tape
At least two registers that can store arbitrary natural numbers that you can increment and try to decrement, receiving feedback on whether that was successful.

This includes two stacks (which can be used as a tape or as registers), but not one stack. Orisphera2 (talk) 17:33, 6 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]