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Memory hierarchy of an AMD Bulldozer server. The number of levels in the memory hierarchy and the performance at each level has increased over time. The type of memory or storage components also change historically. [6] For example, the memory hierarchy of an Intel Haswell Mobile [7] processor circa 2013 is:
William James described a distinction between primary and secondary memory in 1890, where primary memory consisted of thoughts held for a short time in consciousness and secondary memory consisted of a permanent, unconscious store. [2] But at the time the parsimony of separate memory stores was a contested notion.
Secondary storage is non-volatile (retaining data when its power is shut off). Modern computer systems typically have two orders of magnitude more secondary storage than primary storage because secondary storage is less expensive. In modern computers, hard disk drives (HDDs) or solid-state drives (SSDs) are usually used as secondary storage.
The memory cells are laid out in rectangular arrays on the surface of the chip. The 1-bit memory cells are grouped in small units called words which are accessed together as a single memory address. Memory is manufactured in word length that is usually a power of two, typically N=1, 2, 4 or 8 bits.
Registers are normally measured by the number of bits they can hold, for example, an 8-bit register, 32-bit register, 64-bit register, 128-bit register, or more.In some instruction sets, the registers can operate in various modes, breaking down their storage memory into smaller parts (32-bit into four 8-bit ones, for instance) to which multiple data (vector, or one-dimensional array of data ...
Data locality is a typical memory reference feature of regular programs (though many irregular memory access patterns exist). It makes the hierarchical memory layout profitable. In computers, memory is divided into a hierarchy in order to speed up data accesses. The lower levels of the memory hierarchy tend to be slower, but larger.
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For simplicity, main memory is called "RAM" (an acronym of random-access memory) and secondary storage is called "disk" (a shorthand for hard disk drive, drum memory or solid-state drive, etc.), but as with many aspects of computing, the concepts are independent of the technology used.