Oracle Architecture - Introduction

As a Oracle developer or a DBA, you should know the in & out of it’s Architecture.

Let’s keep it simple first and explore later. Oracle is a software or a program, so like any other program, it should be installed on your OS using setup file and then run to get  your things done by it. When I say run, it means to load into memory (RAM).  So obviously, it should be made of these components, as most of the programs do,

1. Memory – Every program/software you run, needs some part of RAM to be allocated. So does Oracle. So Memory in this context is nothing but a part of RAM allocated to Oracle.
2. Processes – Oracle is a program by itself. (Taken this from google) “In computing, a process is an instance of a computer program that is being executed. It contains the program code and its current activity. Depending on the operating system (OS), a process may be made up of multiple threads of execution that execute instructions concurrently”. Every program has related processes and so does Oracle.
3. Storage/Data  – Associated data. Like if you have a game installed, the data should be saved on hard drive as you go on playing the game, so that when you close the game  and start again later some time, you should be able to resume from where you left. Makes sense.