On a PC, there are hard disks acting as storage space where the operating system and application files are stored, and there is RAM which is memory which gets used up by the operating system executable code and applications executable code while everything is running.
On my Samsung Galaxy SIII, when I go to Settings -> More -> Storage
, there are various sections which talk about storage space and memory as though these were the same thing?
So here come my questions:
Apart from storage space provided by the optional SD card which must be inserted into the back of the phone next to the SIM card, is there a single memory chip acting as both a storage medium for files when the device is turned off as well as random access memory for the running operating system executables and apps in execution? As the following screenshot reports there seem to be 16.00GB on my device used both as a hard disk and as RAM. Is this how this storage medium works, a single chip for both?
Where can I see the amount of space available on my SIM card? According to Wikipedia such space can only be used to store specific kinds of data such as network-specific information, a maximum of 250 contacts (except for newer models) where each contact can only consist of a name and single phone number pair, and SMS messages. SIM card capacities are also limited to 32KB to 128KB or more, but in any case it's a very small amount of space. It could be that because of these limitations the Samsung Galaxy SIII and other modern Android phones do not make use of this space for user data, but correct me if I'm wrong.
Thank you for your replies.
/system
(where the OS stuff resides). Keep in mind we have no control how "laymen" might use the terms in forums etc :)