Editing Computer data storage (section)

=== Addressability ===
; Location-addressable : Each individually accessible unit of information in storage is selected with its numerical [[memory address]]. In modern computers, location-addressable storage usually limits to primary storage, accessed internally by computer programs, since location-addressability is very efficient, but burdensome for humans.
; [[file system|File addressable]]: Information is divided into ''[[computer file|files]]'' of variable length, and a particular file is selected with [[human-readable]] directory and file names. The underlying device is still location-addressable, but the [[operating system]] of a computer provides the file system [[abstraction (computer science)|abstraction]] to make the operation more understandable. In modern computers, secondary, tertiary and off-line storage use file systems.
; [[content-addressable memory|Content-addressable]]: Each individually accessible unit of information is selected based on the basis of (part of) the contents stored there. [[Content-addressable storage]] can be implemented using [[software]] (computer program) or [[Computer hardware|hardware]] (computer device), with hardware being faster but more expensive option. Hardware content addressable memory is often used in a computer's [[CPU cache]].