[CSE]  Advanced Operating Systems 
  COMP9242 2002/S2  		UNSW
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Next: Cache organisation Up: 03-cache Previous: 03-cache

Caching


arch

  • Cache is fast (1-5 cycle access time) memory sitting between
    fast registers and slow RAM (10-100 cycles access time)
  • Holds recently used data or instructions to save memory accesses.
  • Matches slow RAM access time to CPU speed if high hit rate (\(\geq 90\)
  • Is hardware maintained and (mostly) transparent to software
  • Sizes range from few kB to several MB.
  • Usually a hierarchy of caches (2-5 levels), on- and off-chip.

Good overview in [Sch94].


Gernot Heiser 2002-08-15