Thinking about how Ram, based just on canon details, is likely older than Tron.
Going just by in-movie canon I don’t think there’s any hard proof either way, and in my own fic I have written Tron as having at least been in the Encom system longer. And Ram looks younger than Tron, of course, to a User’s eyes seeing them with the appearances of their programmers. But it still seems more likely, going by what little we know, that Ram has been around for a longer time.
The “200 microcycles” that Ram mentioned seem to be only in reference to how long he himself had been in the cells. There’s no clear statement of how long Tron had been there. They were probably imprisoned at different times, and most likely also written at different times… and considering that Tron is a project that Alan’s “working on” and “almost ready,” while Ram had already spent some time serving the public as software “for a big insurance company,” it seems most likely that Ram’s the older one.
Now, of course time is weird in the System… and however long Tron’s been there, it’s been long enough to build a reputation among other warriors and to have a considerable history with Yori. So, conceivably, Ram could have gotten his own stated experience in the same or less time. But a longer time seems more probable (especially since Ram’s experience involved contact with the User world, subject to User time).
In my personal headcanon (not compliant with the novel, really, or with anything much beyond onscreen canon of the 82 movie) I imagine that the Encom system is special, and is one of very few systems “haunted” by the programmers’ “spirits” in such a way. In the stories I write, programs imported to Encom from elsewhere become sentient when they enter the Encom system… and while they have factual memories of their previous experience, any emotional context to those memories will be colored by how the program currently thinks and feels, once subject to the Encom phenomenon.
So, I personally imagine that Ram is older than Tron chronologically, but he’s had thoughts and feelings for a shorter time than Tron has.
I’m not sure how much sense this makes, but it strikes me as somehow right… and seems to fit with Ram’s peculiarly charming personality, which to me gives off vibes of “experienced and knowing” as well as “playful and innocent.” He’s really a remarkable program.