Computer Organization and Architecture, unit: Memory Hierarchy and Cache. Core concepts, terminology, and worked-example cues a college student meets for this unit, building on prior units without repeating them. Front: a term, concept, or short problem cue. Back: the definition, explanation, or answer.
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- What is the memory hierarchy?
- A layered organization of storage types balancing speed, cost, and capacity
- Why does a memory hierarchy exist?
- Fast memory is expensive and small; slow memory is cheap and large, so systems layer both
- What is a CPU register's role in the memory hierarchy?
- The fastest, smallest storage, holding data actively being processed
- What is cache memory?
- A small, fast memory layer storing frequently accessed data close to the CPU
- What is L1 cache?
- The smallest and fastest level of cache, located closest to the CPU core
- What is L2 cache?
- A larger, slightly slower cache layer than L1, often shared or per-core
- What is L3 cache?
- A larger, shared cache layer, slower than L1 and L2 but faster than main memory
- What is main memory (RAM)?
- Volatile memory used to hold actively running programs and their data
- What is secondary storage?
- Non-volatile storage, like an SSD or hard drive, used for long-term data retention
- What is the principle of locality?
- The tendency of programs to access a relatively small set of memory locations repeatedly
- What is temporal locality?
- The tendency to access the same memory location again soon after accessing it
- What is spatial locality?
- The tendency to access memory locations near recently accessed ones
- What is a cache hit?
- When requested data is found in the cache, avoiding a slower memory access
- What is a cache miss?
- When requested data is not found in the cache, requiring a slower fetch from main memory
- What is cache replacement policy used for?
- Deciding which data to evict from a full cache to make room for new data
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