Short for static random access memory, and pronounced ess-ram. SRAM is a type of memory that is faster and more reliable than the more common DRAM. The term static is derived from the fact that it doesn't need to be refreshed like dynamic RAM.
While DRAM supports access times of about 60 nanoseconds, SRAM can give access times as low as 10 nanoseconds. In addition, its cycle time is much shorter than that of DRAM because it does not need to pause between accesses. So it is also much more expensive to produce than DRAM, and because of its high cost, SRAM is often used only as a memory cache.
The two types differ in how they use to hold data, and DRAM is the more common type. Athough DRAM needs to be refreshed thousands of times per second, and SRAM does not need to be refreshed and makes it faster; it is much more expensive than the DRAM. Both types of RAM are volatile, meaning that they lose their contents when the power of the computer is turned off.