Which type of memory is essential for booting a computer?

Read Only Memory (ROM) is essential for booting a computer because it contains the firmware, which is the low-level software that initializes hardware during the startup process. When a computer is powered on, the system first accesses the ROM to retrieve the instructions necessary to start up the hardware components, conduct a POST (Power-On Self-Test), and load the operating system from secondary storage into RAM. This process is crucial for the computer to function properly.

While RAM is important for running applications and processes once the computer is powered on, it does not hold data permanently and is not used in the initial boot sequence. Cache memory, designed to speed up data access for the CPU, and virtual memory, which helps manage additional memory through disk space, do not play a role in the boot process. Thus, ROM is the critical type of memory for booting a computer.