The part of the computer’s memory that stores information temporarily while you’re working on it. A computer with 512K RAM has 512 kilobytes of memory available to the user. Information in RAM can be referred to in an arbitrary or random order, hence the term random-access. Information in RAM is temporary, gone forever if you switch the power off without saving it on a disk or other storage medium. An exception is the battery RAM, which stores settings such as the time and which is powered by a battery.