[prev] 57 [next]

Cache Memory (cont)

Cache memory
  • holds parts of RAM that are (hopefully) heavily used
  • transfers data to/from RAM in blocks (cache blocks)
  • memory reference hardware first looks in cache
    • if required address is there, use its contents
    • if not, get it from RAM and put in cache
    • possibly replacing an existing cache block
  • replacement strategies have similar issues to virtual memory