Memory - How Is It Partioned & Allocated?

[Guest Dan Diplo]

Whilst I'm a fairly techy person, I'm a newbie to the Android platform and its workings. Could someone help clarify the following points about how memory is utilised, specifically on the ZTE Blade?

The Blade is listed as having 512MB RAM. How is memory divided up between ROM, installed applications and memory needed to run those applications? Is it somehow partitioned? If so, how much RAM is allocated for each? Are these allocations fixed or dynamic (I remember old windows mobile shared both, so that the more apps you installed the less memory you had to run apps in)?

When you install a custom ROM this usually comes with a number of apps "baked" into it (eg. core Google stuff). Are these apps effectively in the ROM partition, therefore not taking up memory for other apps? Is this why baked apps cannot be updated via Market or moved? If you want to update apps that are "baked" in, then what is the best way to do so?

Sorry if these are basic questions, but I couldn't find the answers anywhere!