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Volatile memory is computer memory that requires power to maintain the stored information. Most modern semiconductor volatile memory is either static RAM (SRAM) or dynamic RAM (DRAM). [a] DRAM dominates for desktop system memory. SRAM is used for CPU cache. SRAM is also found in small embedded systems requiring little memory.
In computing and computer science, a processor or processing unit is an electrical component (digital circuit) that performs operations on an external data source, usually memory or some other data stream. [1]
Additionally, a memory management unit (MMU) is a small device between CPU and RAM recalculating the actual memory address, for example to provide an abstraction of virtual memory or other tasks. As the RAM types used for primary storage are volatile (uninitialized at start up), a computer containing only such storage would not have a source to ...
Processor clock frequency has increased more rapidly than external memory speed, so cache memory is necessary if the processor is not to be delayed by slower external memory. The design of some processors has become complicated enough to be difficult to fully test, and this has caused problems at large cloud providers. [7]
A different concept is the processor-memory performance gap, which can be addressed by 3D integrated circuits that reduce the distance between the logic and memory aspects that are further apart in a 2D chip. [39] Memory subsystem design requires a focus on the gap, which is widening over time. [40]
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.
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: Processor registers – the fastest possible access (usually 1 CPU cycle). A few ...
A CPU cache is a hardware cache used by the central processing unit (CPU) of a computer to reduce the average cost (time or energy) to access data from the main memory. [1] A cache is a smaller, faster memory, located closer to a processor core, which stores copies of the data from frequently used main memory locations.