If the CPU can be viewed as the heart that beats to make the computer live, the flow of binary information throughout the computer system is like the flow of blood. The blood goes to and from the heart and distributes to the rest of the body.

All binary information in a computer must flow through the CPU before it has any vitality, meaning, and purpose. From where does the binary numbers come from and where does it go? There should be a critical place and path from where the key binary numbers reside and travel.

The key holding places for all binary information must be a system that one can put binary information and then retrieve it from the same place. Putting binary information into the system is called writing. Getting binary information is called reading.

Now we must identify the location where the data is located. That location will point to where the binary data is written to or read from. That location is called an address. It is a number. It is similar to the address of a house that uniquely identifies the specific location. That number takes the form of a binary number as well.

What is memory?

Just as the CPU has registers that hold the binary information it needs, we can use a group of registers lumped together in a combined system to hold, retain, and retrieve binary information as needed.

The system has the following characteristics:

• A block of registers combined together as a single unit.
• Each register is pointed to by a binary number used as an address for that specific register.
• There is a shared binary path that goes to all the registers called the data path.

Writing

1. The binary information that you want to put into a specific register is put on the data path.
2. A binary number serves as an address that supplies input to the system.
3. A write command (as a 1 and 0) is given to the system.
4. The targeted register swallows the binary information in the location specified by the binary address number.
5. The information is stored in memory at that specific address.

Reading

To get back the information from memory, it must be given an address. Since the user put the binary information into that specific binary address, it can now get back that binary information from that memory address.

The process is:

1. Feed the binary address to the address input of the Memory System.
2. Send a Read signal (1 and 0) to the Memory System.
3. Wait for the Memory System to look up the binary value from the memory location at the binary address.
4. The Memory System delivers the requested binary value using the data path.

Memory becomes the key resource for the keeper of all important binary information. As complex as it seems it comes down to a few simple ideas.

• Data – the binary information that you wish for the Memory to hold
• Address – the unique binary number that identifies the location (could be a register)
• Controls
  • Read – a binary bit to tell the system to put the data on the binary data path that it takes from the location (register) pointed to by the binary address
  • Write – a binary bit to tell the system to take the binary data on the data path and put it into a storage location (register) pointed to by the binary address

This Memory system can be tightly married to the CPU to enact the key functionality of a computer.

That is:

1. Get the binary instruction from a binary address provided by the CPU.
2. The CPU will translate the binary number as an instruction.
3. The CPU will then execute the translated instruction.

That fits the core purpose of the computer. Just as the blood and heart work together, the binary data to/from memory works with the CPU. That becomes the kernel of the computer system.