Category Archives: IT Essentials
Different Types of Memory That a Computer Uses
The different types of memory that a computer uses, in order of fastest to slowest, are as follows:
- memory inside CPU – L1 cache
- memory in the processor housing – L2 cache
- memory on the motherboard – RAM
- hard drive space that is used as memory – virtual memory
Cache
Cache is a much faster memory that stores copies of the data from the most frequently used main memory locations.
So when the CPU needs to access the data, first it checks the cache to see if it exists there. If so the processor will read the information from the cache, which is much faster than accessing it from the main memory.
There are three three independent caches:
– an instruction cache to speed up executable instruction fetch;
– a data cache to speed up data fetch and store;
– a translation lookaside buffer (TLB) used to speed up virtual-to-physical address translation for both executable instructions and data;
Data cache is usually organized as a hierarchy of more cache levels:
- L1;
- L2;
- L3;
- L4;
- …
Read more at: Wikipedia Multi Level Caches
Cisco Packet Tracer Skills Assessment Environment Check
