Memory System Organization
The chapter delves into the organization and operational principles of computer memory systems, emphasizing the memory hierarchy made up of registers, cache, main memory, and secondary storage. It discusses trade-offs in memory design concerning speed, size, cost, and volatility, as well as advanced memory management techniques including cache memory and virtual memory. The chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the roles each memory type plays in optimizing performance and addressing the speed disparity between the CPU and main memory.
Sections
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What we have learnt
- A computer's memory hierarchy consists of different memory types, each with specific features and functions.
- The performance of a memory hierarchy depends on balancing speed, capacity, cost per bit, and volatility.
- Cache memory plays a crucial role in bridging the gap between CPU speed and main memory access time.
Key Concepts
- -- Memory Hierarchy
- A structured arrangement of different types of memory devices organized by speed, capacity, cost, and volatility.
- -- Caching
- A technique to store copies of frequently accessed data and instructions to improve access speed for the CPU.
- -- Virtual Memory
- An abstraction that allows programs to use more memory than physically available by managing memory using fixed-size pages stored on secondary storage.
- -- Page Replacement Algorithms
- Strategies used to decide which memory pages to remove from physical memory to make room for new pages.
Additional Learning Materials
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