Levels of the Memory Hierarchy

CPU Registers

100s Bytes

᝺s ns

Cache

K Bytes

10-100 ns

~$.0005/bit

Main Memory

M Bytes

100ns-1us

~$.00001/bit

Disk

G Bytes

ms

10 - 10 cents

-3

-4

Capacity

Access Time

Cost

Tape

infinite

sec-min

10

-6

Registers

Cache

Memory

Disk

Tape

Instr. Operands

Blocks

Pages

Files

Staging

Xfer Unit

prog./compiler

1-8 bytes

cache cntl

8-128 bytes

OS

512-4K bytes

user/operator

Mbytes

Upper Level

Lower Level

faster

Larger

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